Photo by Alejandro Cartagena 🇲🇽🏳🌈 on Unsplash Ripping Apart Migrant Families
Zaineb, Undergraduate Student (UM-Dearborn) Migrant kids are crossing the border of hope and opportunity with bruised feet and only the clothes on their backs. After several days of an on-foot journey of fleeing from the country whose violence is at a peak and a decent life wasn’t attainable, they were met with systematic racism. A country that would have its President call them and their families “rapists and criminals,” a country that would not only deny them entry but would rip them apart from the only family they knew. The very family that they thought would bring them a new life would now be scattered in several across several holding cells. Children as young as eight months old would now be crying in a jail-like cage, where there were no caretakers aside from teens and not even a decent blanket to sleep on. At the very beginning of the Trump administration, President Trump signed a “zero tolerance” policy that would separate everyone crossing the border without authorization—migrants didn’t even have to have a criminal offense. This policy was put into place to “instill fear” into the families trying to migrate so that they wouldn’t even bother crossing. This was a policy that allowed the US Government to rip parents away from their children with no warning or remorse as they were to wait for their hearing to either be granted asylum or be deported. The separation of migrant children from their families affects real lives—and it is all in the hands of the US government. Time and again, our country has demonstrated that it does not view immigrants as humans, with family separation being one of the most egregious examples. The emotional, physical, and psychological health of these families has been put in jeopardy. The families that experienced separation may never get over it. On top of the terror that the US government caused with respect to this policy, there was also a total lack of accountability. Although officially short-lived, the damage done by family separation has yet to be resolved. The Trump administration did little to ensure that all those who had been separated would be reunited with their families. In fact, the US government only began reuniting separated children and families after a court ordered it to do so. Moreover, reports of family separation at the border continued through 2020. Migrants at the border deserve aid, they deserve to be with their families. If they are awaiting an immigration court hearing, they should be allowed to wait with their families. One way to help solve this problem would be to build detention facilities that are family safe and allow the children to stay with their parents. Better yet would be to pass strict policies that protect the rights of migrant children and families. In the meantime, remaining children and families that have been separated should be reunited immediately—they do not deserve to be treated as less than. References: 1. Bochenek, Michael G. (2019). “US: Family Separation Harming Children, Families. 5-year-olds Held without Adult Caregivers.” Human Rights Watch, 1-3. https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/07/11/us-family-separation-harming-children-families 2. Rodhan, Maya (2018). “Here are the Facts about President Trump’s Family Separation Policy.” Time, 1-3. https://time.com/5314769/family-separation-policy-donald-trump/ 3. Southern Poverty Law Center (2020). “Family Separation under Trump administration- a timeline.” Souther Poverty Law Center, 1. https://www.splcenter.org/news/2020/06/17/family-separation-under-trump-administration-timeline#2017
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