Ain’t That America?

Ain’t That America?

Pink Houses by John Mellencamp

A mother leaves Honduras. The violence is too great; she fears that her twelve-year old boy will be forced into the gangs; she fears even more what might happen to her fourteen year old daughter.  She decides to take the dangerous trip through Mexico; open trucks, packed railroad cars, dusty roads, bribes and smugglers.  Her goal is to reach the Estados Unidos, the United States, a nation that offers opportunity for her, and safety for her children.

She arrives at the border, and asks for refugee status.  It’s legal to ask to cross the border, and it’s legal to ask for refugee status or asylum. Even if the crossing is considered “illegal” it is a misdemeanor offense.  Like any misdemeanor, it may mean a couple of days in jail, and then a hearing to determine status.

But what of the kids who came with mom?  In the past, they would be kept with their mother, held together, and released with her to await the status hearing.  However, under the new REGULATIONS written by the current Administration (not THE LAW as suggested by some Administration officials) those children are taken away from the parent for the duration of the time the status is in question.  This might be months, or even longer.  The children are placed into US custody, held in detention centers, often thousands of miles from their parents, and ultimately put with foster families.

So this mother from Honduras will lose her children for an extended period of time, regardless of whether she actually committed a crime or not.  She may not even know where her children are taken, and the children may not be able to contact their mother or even their sibling.  This happens with older children, and it also happens with children as young as one.

Is this America?  Is this what America is about, ripping children from their parents at the moment when, for the first time perhaps in years, they are actually safe?  Regardless of your view of the immigration laws, or building walls:  is this what your America is about?

And this is not an accident, or an unintended consequence of law enforcement.  This is an intentional policy of the Department of Homeland Security, a “deterrent” to those who are trying to escape to the Estados Unidos to gain safety and freedom.  Secretaries Session and Nielsen, and Chief of Staff Kelly, have made it clear that they intend to make the price of entry into the United States without a visa, the loss of your child.

“… Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

The New Colossus by Emma Lazarus

We all read the poem in middle school, inscribed on the base of the Statue of Liberty.  We all learned the stories of the immigrants at Ellis Island, who came to start a new life in America.  WE – the government that represents you and me; now opens “the golden door” and then takes the children away.  And we do it not for the safety of the children, not out of legal necessity; we do it send a message to potential refugees.  We are saying don’t come to the Estados Unidos, we will take your children away.

It was in 1999 that the US was last faced with the government publicly determining the fate of a child. Elian Gonzalez was five.  His mother and several others were escaping from Cuba in a rubber boat.  The boat capsized and Elian was found clinging to an inner tube off the Florida coast. He was the only survivor.

Elian was turned over to relatives in Miami, but his father back in Cuba demanded custody.  After months of court battles, both in Florida and Federal courts, it was determined that he would be returned to Cuba.  While in the cold legal world of the courtroom this may have been the correct decision, the picture of the terrified five year old facing the armed might of the US government was burned into our collective memory.

It was Cuba, a nation we have determined is a “bad” place.  At that time, we had a “feet dry” policy:  if you could get from Cuba and have “feet dry” on US soil, you were admitted to the country.  The US wanted to show that folks were fleeing Communism, it was in “our interest” to show folks in rubber boats desperately crossing the Florida Straits.

But we’ve deemed it’s not in our interest to have folks flee the gang violence of Honduras.  It’s not in our interest for them to risk the smugglers, the “human traffickers,” and the perils of a thousand mile trek in the open, to reach our “golden door.”  So we punish them for trying.  We take away their children.

Ain’t that America?