News of the immigration crisis in the United States has rightfully flooded television and phone screens across the United States and the world. The "shining city on the hill" has grown dimmer and dimmer as Americans watch their taxpayer dollars go to work separating helpless children from their parents.
While Fox News and conservative outlets paint these families as criminals and "animals," the reality is that these families are asylees, fleeing an environment where they risk being killed, tortured, raped or forced into drug and human trafficking rings. Due to the conditions in their country of origin, families have traveled hundreds even thousands of miles to seek refuge in the country that boasts and advertises itself as the home of freedom, democracy, and safety from tyranny. In Texas, children are being forcibly injected with psychotropic drugs to be used as a "chemical straight jacket" as described by a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles by the Center for Human Rights & Constitutional Law.
It seems that many Americans including the President of the United States has forgotten the United States of America is a nation of immigrants built by immigrants. Unless a citizen is Native American, we all can trace our lineage back to a boat ride across the Atlantic or the Pacific Ocean. While anti-immigrant sentiments have been a constant throughout American history, now that we live in a connected world where we can access the truth at the click of the button, it is time we break such an awful habit.
What has also been astonishing is the insensitivity exhibited by voters on this issue. I have heard several people on the news and in person talk about how they could not care less about these people, but at the same time describe themselves as loving parents. If roles were reversed I am 100% confident that the intolerance to people struggling to find a place to live without fear of persecution would not be appreciated.
A plaque at the Statue of Liberty is inscribed with Emma Lazarus' poem The New Colossus which reads: "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free." Instead of letting these families "breathe free," Americans watch as children sleep on the floor of a converted Walmart under thermal foil blankets.
More and more, the George Santayana quote, "Those who do not learn history are condemned to repeat it," comes to mind as the treatment of these families is unfortunately similar to the treatment of millions of people involved in multiple humanitarian crises of the last one hundred years. These detention centers are starting to look eerily similar to Japanese internment camps of the 1940s. Since then, the United States government has profusely apologized for their actions. I think it is time we ditch a future apology by ending practices there will end up being a need to apologize for.
If there was ever a time to call your representatives and exercise your First Amendment right to free speech and civil discourse, it's today. Find what representatives you can contact to voice your concerns here.
