by Pa Rock
Grandfather
Children are an integral part of the tradition of Christmas, from the birth of a baby in a stable two thousand years ago to images of children joyously ripping the wrapping paper from gifts that Santa brought. It's a celebration inspired by the birth of a child and carried out through festivities geared to delight children.
But the holiday season can also be a time of challenges for some of the least among us in society, particularly immigrants along our southern border who have braved weeks walking northward across Mexico in the hope of receiving sanctuary in the "land of the free." The trip north is a perilous journey, and for many the dangers persist even after they manage to cross the border and set their feet on the United States of America - a land which once took great pride in opening its doors to refugees. The Lady Liberty envisioned freedom from tyranny with the words:
But Donald Trump and his administration do not see frightened masses in need of safety and security - they see hordes of "animals" from "shithole" countries bringing drugs, disease, and crime from their homelands to ours, and they treat them like animals.
For awhile immigrant children were removed from their parents upon arrival in the United States as a strategy to discourage more people from traveling northward to seek sanctuary in the United States. Some were kept in child detention camps, while others were farmed out into the foster care system. Then, when the public outcry over that malicious and evil practice hit a crescendo, the administration relented and changed its policy to detain families together in camps that had been designed thirty years ago to house individual adult detainees. Children were still being incarcerated but at least now they were with their parents.
But the situation is still awful.
Three weeks ago a seven-year-old girl from Guatemala died while in the custody of Customs and Border Protection (CBP). She was apparently suffering from hunger and dehydration, and her serious medical state had somehow been missed by the detaining authorities. When her medical distress became obvious, she was transferred to a medical center for treatment, but it was too late.
Yesterday, Christmas Day, there was another child death along our southern border. This time it was an eight-year-old Guatemalan boy who was also in the custody of the CBE. He died at a medical facility in Alamogordo, New Mexico, sometime in the earliest hours of Christmas morning - at a time when countless other children were still struggling to stay awake so they could hear the bells on Santa's sleigh.
The place where yesterday's victim was staying with his father was a U.S. detention center where the cells are referred to as "hieleras" or "ice boxes" by the immigrants because they are so cold. News reports said that people at these facilities sleep on mats on the floor, and that each person is given one mylar blanked to ward off the cold. A pediatrician familiar with the conditions in those types of facilities told news sources that people detained there are susceptible to influenza and dehydration.
It's Christmas in Donald Trump's America - and this American is profoundly ashamed of the way our country treats immigrants - and especially immigrant children. We are a better nation than that, whether Donald Trump realizes it or not.
Grandfather
Children are an integral part of the tradition of Christmas, from the birth of a baby in a stable two thousand years ago to images of children joyously ripping the wrapping paper from gifts that Santa brought. It's a celebration inspired by the birth of a child and carried out through festivities geared to delight children.
But the holiday season can also be a time of challenges for some of the least among us in society, particularly immigrants along our southern border who have braved weeks walking northward across Mexico in the hope of receiving sanctuary in the "land of the free." The trip north is a perilous journey, and for many the dangers persist even after they manage to cross the border and set their feet on the United States of America - a land which once took great pride in opening its doors to refugees. The Lady Liberty envisioned freedom from tyranny with the words:
“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!”
But Donald Trump and his administration do not see frightened masses in need of safety and security - they see hordes of "animals" from "shithole" countries bringing drugs, disease, and crime from their homelands to ours, and they treat them like animals.
For awhile immigrant children were removed from their parents upon arrival in the United States as a strategy to discourage more people from traveling northward to seek sanctuary in the United States. Some were kept in child detention camps, while others were farmed out into the foster care system. Then, when the public outcry over that malicious and evil practice hit a crescendo, the administration relented and changed its policy to detain families together in camps that had been designed thirty years ago to house individual adult detainees. Children were still being incarcerated but at least now they were with their parents.
But the situation is still awful.
Three weeks ago a seven-year-old girl from Guatemala died while in the custody of Customs and Border Protection (CBP). She was apparently suffering from hunger and dehydration, and her serious medical state had somehow been missed by the detaining authorities. When her medical distress became obvious, she was transferred to a medical center for treatment, but it was too late.
Yesterday, Christmas Day, there was another child death along our southern border. This time it was an eight-year-old Guatemalan boy who was also in the custody of the CBE. He died at a medical facility in Alamogordo, New Mexico, sometime in the earliest hours of Christmas morning - at a time when countless other children were still struggling to stay awake so they could hear the bells on Santa's sleigh.
The place where yesterday's victim was staying with his father was a U.S. detention center where the cells are referred to as "hieleras" or "ice boxes" by the immigrants because they are so cold. News reports said that people at these facilities sleep on mats on the floor, and that each person is given one mylar blanked to ward off the cold. A pediatrician familiar with the conditions in those types of facilities told news sources that people detained there are susceptible to influenza and dehydration.
It's Christmas in Donald Trump's America - and this American is profoundly ashamed of the way our country treats immigrants - and especially immigrant children. We are a better nation than that, whether Donald Trump realizes it or not.
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