Lives and Families Ripped Apart at the Border

I already know the arguments some of you will make against what I have to say.  I get it...politics, laws, history, pride, crime...BLAH, BLAH, BLAH!!!  However, I am absolutely positive that if you are saying any of these things, you have probably not looked at the bigger picture.  You probably haven't seen any videos or heard any cries or looked at any numbers.  You can probably tell me how many immigrants have committed crimes, what drugs are coming from where, and how many jobs are being taken from "AMERICAN CITIZENS."  You will probably share that our economy is being effected by these people.  "They are breaking the law, you know?  They deserve it."

Okay, does that cover all of the excuses?  Now that you have all of those facts off of your chest, let's look at the other side, the one that is not blinded by politics.  These are PEOPLE.  These are people like you and me.  And maybe some of them have drugs or criminal histories or whatever you are so terrified of.  But I am positive that the extreme majority of these people are coming here because they want something better for their FAMILIES.  Whatever they are running from they fear is far worse than the possibility of prosecution.  They see America as a place with opportunity and safety and hope.  These are things our country prides itself in and boasts about it and sings it loud to all the world.

"God bless America,  land that I love.  Stand beside her and guide her through the night with the light from above.  From the mountains, to the prairies to the oceans white with foam.  God bless America, MY home sweet home..."

We are the best the world has to offer.  Look at all we have and all you can do.  Our children can do anything they want to do and be anything they want to be...as long as they are blessed enough to be born to American parents.  The world is theirs for the taking if they are United States citizens.  If not, they don't deserve any of it.  If they were born on the other side of the border, they are worthy of nothing.

They come here for the dream that we boldly proclaim to the world with the hope of a better life.  And what happens?  We strip children...YOUNG and OLD...from the arms of their parents and put them in cages until we can move them to a more "humane" location.  This humane location is apart from the parents they were born to and loved by their entire lives.  I cannot imagine having my children taken away from me.  But what I cannot imagine even more is me being taken from my children.  These children no longer have parents and we think we are protecting them.  Even the worst criminals' families are cared for with more compassion than this.  Some of you say, "these are criminals and criminals lose custody of their children."  There are social workers whose job it is to find the most loving home for those children.  Those homes they are in are people who desire to love on children who need love.  They do so knowing that as soon as the courts decide the biological parent is capable of caring for their child, the child will be given back into the arms of someone who may not be ready for that responsibility.  These children at the border are being torn from their parents by the THOUSANDS with the hope that they will be placed in foster care within an average 57 days.  There are 11,785 children in government facilities for short-term care, most of them there for almost 2 months.  One of these short-term care facilities was a former Wal-mart, home sweet home to thousands of children who have just been stripped from the arms of their parents.  You may say that they should be treated like juveniles in detention.  The juvenile detention facilities for Americans hold an average of 12 children, not twelve-hundred children.

I teach at an elementary school with about 250 students.  In one month, since the new zero-tolerance policy began,  2,342 children were separated from their families.  Imagine 10 of my schools children being whisked away to live in a Wal-mart.  It has been reported that the "caretakers" working in these facilities have been instructed not to hold or comfort crying children.  Not only are these children living without the comfort of those they love, they are living without the comfort of anyone.  No one is responding to their cries.  They are confused in a world where nothing makes sense anymore and their families are nowhere to be found.

My mind keeps going back to a time in history when children were stripped from their families and put behind fences by the thousands.  The difference is that we are not sending them to gas chambers, shaving their heads, tattooing their arms, or putting them in stripped outfits and putting them to work.

Excuse me while I go hug my children.