In a country like America, this shouldn't be happening.
Yet, in America's current political and social climate – it's not surprising that it is happening.
Childish Gambino's summer anthem seems to say it all: "This is America." The problem is, this shouldn't be America. Just because it's happening doesn't mean it should be happening.
If you're wondering, how this immigration crisis affects you, the fact is: it doesn't – at least if it is not directly affecting your family or the people you know. However, that is not to say it shouldn't matter to you. If you're a living, breathing human being with a heart or a family, siblings, nephew or niece, or even a child of your own – it should matter to you.
No child deserves to be separated from their parent or caregiver regardless of whether or not their parent or guardian has "broken the law" (which, by the way, seeking asylum is perfectly legal). To believe that an innocent child must face irreversible emotional, psychological, and physical trauma as a result of an action their parent has done as part of a pursuit for a better life is absolutely appalling. Although nowadays everything is somehow politicized, something as inhumane and heart-wrenching no longer should be a matter of politics. This is a human rights crisis, and it is a practice that makes America look like a country with no morals and with no heart. It shouldn't matter whether you're conservative or liberal, Republican or Democrat, Latinx or not – this cruel "zero-tolerance policy" has been condemned by all living former first ladies, by both celebrities and politicians from all backgrounds and from all ends of the political spectrum.
I assure you, nothing will ever even come close to the pain of not knowing where your child is, how they're being treated, or in whose hands they're in.
The current administration has deepened the political divide in our country and is actively working to destroy the slowly but surely growing sense of equality and diversity in our nation. To not acknowledge this is to contribute to the degradation of our democracy. If you don't think the latter is happening, I urge you to look back at the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, VA last year which left one woman protestor dead after she was purposefully stricken by a car at a white supremacist demonstration.
Even worse, immigrant toddlers and children are being forced to be their own lawyers in American courts, and according to several lawsuits being filed by the parents of immigrant children, the staff at detention centers are drugging and physically, as well as sexually, abusing the migrant children. Moreover, experts and TIME magazine report that detaining children in what Trump's administration alleges is a "humane" practice, could pose serious threats to "kids' mental health, potentially increasing the incidence of everything from PTSD to suicide."
So if you thought before that these children deserve to bear the burden of being brought to a country when they did not have another choice or say in that decision – I beg you to reconsider.
"I think that there are certain principles which should guide decision-making for a president. One such principle was that we're all God's children, and every life is precious. To me, that's a moral statement."
- George W. Bush, 43rd president of the United States
