At 9 years old, my grandfather was separated from his family and placed in immigration detention. He was still talking about that “9-12 month” ordeal decades later, up to the week he died. The wound had never closed. After he passed I [Beth] learned he had been detained for just 34 days. 34 days is a lifetime for a child. ( link to account ).
“Government sanctioned child abuse” is what the American Academy of Pediatrics is calling Donald Trump and Jeff Session’s policy of separating babies from their mothers. These doctors have seen toddlers, and even breastfeeding children ripped away from their mothers.
All normal human beings would hang their heads in shame.
So how many of these 9 year olds are being held in these modern day concentration camps?
We do not know. Just one facility in Texas, visited by the New York Times (link here) showed something like 1500 kids crammed inside an old Walmart Super Center with blacked out windows. This is just one facility of many. It has many problems — including a horrifying aside at the end: minor tested positive for a sexually transmitted disease, and the facility didn’t provide treatment for four weeks.
I worry about the age ranges as well — how well is the facility able to ensure some of the older kids aren’t bullying or committing sexual assault of younger kids?
I am still very angry, hurt and sad that except for Jeff Merkley most congress critters, even democrats are still largely silent on this issue.
Here is another heart rending story from RAICES one of the largest immigration legal services organizations (edited significantly for clarity):
Four months ago, a father and his 4-month-old entered at the Texas/Mexico border and requested asylum — REMEMBER — requesting asylum is NOT illegal. Dad and child were immediately separated and the baby put in custody.
Dad was detained in a detention center where the father accepted a deportation to be quickly reunited w/ his infant child. However, the father was deported & NOT his child. The now 8-month-old baby has been in government custody for 4 months.
The Mom and Dad now have once weekly Skype calls with their 8-month-old baby….
This set of events will be remembered along with many other sad events like the Trail of Tears, the internment of Japanese Americans and the brutalization of native American children by our government. Will God and history judge that we Americans stood up and tried to stop it?