Children separated from families at southern US border

The Trump Administration has hit a new low.

Children of undocumented immigrants have been separated from their parents and families upon detainment at the southern United States border. This is the Trump Administration’s alternative policy to detaining entire families. Audio recordings have surfaced of children screaming helplessly as they are stripped out of the arms of the their families.Families are thrown into detention centers hopeless and fearful of the unknown.

It has been hard to turn on news lately. So, sometimes I avoid it.  However, that day I felt compelled to find out what was occurring in the nation and around the world. “Breaking News: 2000 children separated from families” appeared largely on my television screen as I turned the channel on to CNN. Then I switch the television to MSNBC, then ABC, and then Fox. My heart sank. I realized that what I was watching on my screen was not a dream. It was a real life nightmare of the many undocumented families that have trek across southern US border.

In this country undocumented immigrants are characterized “illegal” and “alien”, perpetuating a false narrative that all undocumented individuals are problematic and criminals.There are  many reasons that immigrants flee their homelands, sell all their possessions, and take long and dangerous journeys in hopes of crossing the border into the “land of the free and home of the brave”.

They take these risks only to face the unimaginable nightmare of being detained by border patrol officials. Ultimately, they are separated from their children for weeks, going on months without being notified of their location. Parents are thrown into detention centers with unimaginable conditions as described by government officials and advocates that have visited.The children are thrown in “tender age” camps which Fox News host Laura Ingraham compares to “summer camps.” Summer camps are usually a happy place for children and children usually return home to their families after a day at camp. But these children do not know their fate nor the fate of their parents, so this no “summer camp” for them.

It is juvenile detention.

This outlook on immigration, in both a policy and moral stance, is disheartening, insensitive, and inhumane.

This is a country that was built from the ground up on the back, blood, sweat and tears of immigrants for the most part. America has pride itself on its exceptionalistic ideals. However, its poor decision making especially as it relates to this immigration crisis is un-American. This is supposed to be a nation of opportunity, freedom, and democratic ideals. However, it has been a place of despair, disappointment, and fear within and outside of its perimeters.

This is what it means to “Make America Great Again.”

This immigration crisis  should not be not a matter of political ideology. It should not be about whether you check Republican, Democratic or Independent on a ballot. It is about if you identify with being human on any box. Then you should empathize with the desire for shelter, safety, food, freedom and opportunity. Imagine if that was your child, your mom, dad, anyone who means something to you that was taken from you.We all derive from immigrants or are immigrants of some form.

As renowned poet Rupi Kaur states in Sun in Her Flowers, “perhaps we are all immigrants trading one home for another  first we leave the womb for air then the suburbs for the filthy city in search for a better life some of us just happen to leave entire countries.” Immigrant or not-we  should aim to remember and respect each others humanity.