Unless you have been living under a rock for the past few weeks, I'm sure you have heard, read, or seen something about President Trump's "zero-tolerance" immigration policy. One of the biggest issues surrounding this is that many children are separated from their families at the border as a result of the policy.
Prior to this, families were taken to family centers operated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). So, what is the current process of enforcing the policy and where do immigrant children end up now?
When immigrant families cross the border into the United States, they are taken into custody and charged as criminals. Following this, the children are taken from their parents and handed over to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) where they are then taken to shelters.
We recently got a look into one of these shelters thanks to a Twitter thread by MSNBC correspondent, Jacob Soboroff. His thread was posted on June 13. In the thread, he offers information and photos about the shelter in Brownsville, TX that houses over 1,000 immigrant boys. I have linked Soboroff's Twitter thread here so you can go through it all, but I can tell you one thing: it's scary.
The fact that all of these innocent children, most ranging from 10-17 years old in the Brownsville shelter, are being detained in government-run facilities is nothing to celebrate. To be honest, I do not believe it should be happening in the first place. It is baffling to me that so nearly 200 children have been stripped of their families in just six weeks.
Let's be honest. If another country was taking American children from their parents and detaining them in mass numbers, Americans would be up in arms about the issue. There is no reason for these — I'll say it again — INNOCENT children to be taken from their families.
It is inhumane, heartless, and downright wrong.
Thus far, there have been numerous members of Congress, Democrats, and Republicans alike, who have voiced their concerns and disapproval of this "zero-tolerance" policy. Recently, Vox reported that Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) will introduce a bill to fight the separation at the border. The Hill reported that Mitch McConnell (R-KY), the Senate Majority Leader, has also stated his support for such a bill.
Regardless of which side of the line you stand on, whether you like Trump or not, the practice of separating children from their families is wrong. While I believe that some immigration policies are necessary to prevent anyone and everyone from just coming and living in the United States, this policy is not the correct way to address immigration. All it is doing is tearing families apart and punishing children who are too young to have even made the decision to immigrate themselves.
Something must change. I will not sit idly by watching this happen simply because it is not happening to me. I, and many other Americans have zero tolerance for this "zero-tolerance" immigration policy. We must change our policies and practices regarding immigration.
