I want you to take a moment and think about your child and let’s just say, for the sake of this story, that you have a daughter. I want you to think about all of the things that you love about your daughter. Maybe it’s the way that her face lights up when she sees you after a day of school, or how in the first grade she worked all day to draw you a pretty picture of a heart to express how much love that she had for you.
Now I want you to think of your lover. I want you to remember all of the things that make you love her. Maybe it’s how she comforts you after a hard day at work or how she is the one person in the world that you feel as though you can rely on. It was because of her that you believe that true love exists. She showed you what it means to feel whole. She makes you feel safe, like you are no longer alone in this world and you smile at the thought of growing old with her. I want you to think back to your first anniversary and the first time she told you that she loved you. Reminisce on how nervous you were right before she said it and how your heart melted as those words formed on her lips. Do you remember when you first fell in love with her? Do you remember how it felt like nothing in the world could take away from your love and the first moment that you thought to yourself, “I want to spend the rest of my life with you.”
Now I want you to close your eyes and for a moment, imagine how it would feel if a gang with so much power that even their name made the police nervous, brutally murdered your loved one. Your heart would scream as you gaze upon pieces of her mutilated corpse lying on the ground covered in blood; her gaping mouth open in a silent scream. She is almost unrecognizable, with dismembered parts of her body scattered across the floor like the macabre painting from Théodore Géricault. With eyes still open, she gazes into the distance as if in the last moments of her life, she looked through the gates of hell itself and saw Lucifer staring back.
“Is this real,” you wonder as the sound of your daughter sobbing behind you, melts your muscles. You fall to the ground, clutching onto your aching chest as the deafening sounds of your soul’s lamentations echo in your mind. “Please don’t let this be real.” But it is. Your eyes search your lover’s body. The men who murdered her showed her no mercy. They humiliated, raped, and tortured your beloved to death. They wanted her to feel the worst kind of pain possible and made sure that she remained alive for as long as they could manage to keep her heart beating.
Reaching out your quivering fingers, you pick up a note specked with dried blood found stabbed into her back. You lift the letter to your eyes that are burning with tears and read words so cold that it sends shivers down your spine. "You and your child are next.”
Though everyone that you love is found in this country that you call home, you have no other choice but to run. You need to leave or they will track you down and slaughter you and your child in ways that you only thought were possible in your worst dreams. This nightmare is your reality.
In desperation, you grab the little bit of clothing that you have and your papers. You don't have any money and hardly any food, but you will have to find a way to survive. Leaning over, you kiss your loved one’s cheek and say goodbye. You long to give her the decent burial that she deserves but you know that every moment that you stay in this country, is a moment closer to facing death itself. You cannot risk that fate for your baby girl and you knew that your beloved would have understood and would have wanted you to leave without delay.
Running to your child, you grab her in your arms and run. There is only one country that you can think of where you know where you will be safe. It is a place where dreams come true and right now the only dream you have is to watch your baby grow up without ever having to go through this again. Yes, this journey will be hard and yes you will be risking both you and your child’s life but you are guaranteed death if you remain here or anywhere near here.
After a long and dangerous journey, you finally arrive. Wiping the sweat off of your brow you look up and see several boarder officers in dark green uniforms approach you with glaring eyes. Quickly you pull out the papers that you have, proving your child is your own as well as a few other documents. This is your first step towards asylum. This is your first step towards freedom.
“Are we there yet?” you child asks you with big brown eyes and dirt smudged on her cheek. She reaches up and wraps her fingers between yours.
“Yes my love,” you say with a sad smile as your shoulders sink. You have heard this is a benevolent and gracious country that helps those in need. You have heard the glorious stories of people living a peaceful life without the fears that you lived with, in your home country. You long for that for you and your child.
This relief only lasts for a day because shortly after you are taken in by the officers that you had run to for help, they take your child away from you and shove you in a cell. You are no criminal. You have never done anything wrong to anyone and you came to this country to run into the arms of shelter, only to be treated like an inconvenient infestation.
“Where is my baby,” you cry out as your fingers wrap around the bars of the cell. “Please give me back my daughter!” Shivering from head to toe, you are not sure if your body is shaking from the cold or sheer emotional torment that you are in. You want nothing more than to wrap your arms around your child and reassure her that she is safe. You didn’t even get to say goodbye to her, when they lead her away, filling your head with a lie that she would be returned to you. Closing your eyes you try to calm your pounding heart. Does she think that you abandoned her? Does she cry out your name with hot tears streaming down her cheeks? What if she is hungry? Is she as cold as you are? How long will you remain in this prison? Will you ever see her again?
You feel betrayed. Is this really the country that you heard was so great; the country that you ran into the arms of for safety, only to be treated worse than a farm animal? The officers that walk around with chest puffed out, act as if you are less than human, while people wearing blood red hats cry out on the blaring television screen, “Get out of my country.” The president who sits on his throne of paranoia feeds the minds of those who eat up his words like a starving baby to a mother’s tit. They are so hungry for a change, that they consume his lies as if they were truth, as he preys upon their fears to maintain control. His supporters sit in the comfort of their warm home, surrounded by their family, only because they won the geological jackpot. Unfortunately, you did not, which is why you sit in a cold dark cell, wondering where your child is. You had no idea this country of dreamers had become your living nightmare. Where is the humanity?
“Why did you take my baby away? Please,” you beg with an aching heart as you look at the officer who looks back at you wearing an icy expression, “she is all I have left.”
Separation of family was the unfortunate reality for more than 2,600 children. Implementing this draconian policy was a cruel and deplorable act put in place by tyrannical megalomaniacs with a clear ethical deficit. While I understand that we cannot take care of the entire world, to separate families that pose no threat to their children or others, is an abominable act targeting minorities who often times come here because if they remained in their country, they would in fact be ruthlessly be murdered by gangs, who often times have a strong political pull within their country. The United States is ruled by a corrupt, racist, narcissistic, liar who uses fear as a way to control the minds of those who look to him for answers. The president spoon feeds the masses his poison, influencing the easily influenced, to blindly follow him while he tries to push this nation further away from compassion and a basic moral and ethical foundation. Although Mr. Trump did sign an executive order on June 20th to stop this heinous act, there are still children that have not been reunited with their families.
It is important to realize that this journey these families embark upon is not an easy one. It’s not like they are lounging around on their couch, watching TV, and randomly decide, “Do you want to take a little walk to the good old United States? I hear they have great burgers.” No, the journey can take sometimes as long as 20 days or more and getting there without being harmed or murdered is as likely as playing Russian roulette with an almost fully loaded gun and surviving. To die on this journey is not uncommon. A more merciful death would be through starvation or dehydration but unfortunately many of these innocent people are tortured and slaughtered when they walk through gang territory. In addition to that risk, a large portion of the women who partake on this journey are raped; sometimes even kidnapped and held for ransom or sold as sex slaves.
According to an article written by the Washington post on August 31 of this year, there were still almost 500 children that remained separated from their families 2. These children were being held against their will at a government facility, going to sleep each night without a kiss goodnight from their loving parents, as they wonder to themselves if they will ever see their mother or father again. Separating families is an atrocity that should have never occurred but was put in place by an administration who clearly lacks even a loose understanding of the value of a family. We need to keep in mind the emotional impact that enforcing this policy had on the children.
A statement that the APA released by the president of the company regarding Trump's executive order states:
“Decades of psychological research show that children separated from their parents can suffer severe psychological distress, resulting in anxiety, loss of appetite, sleep disturbances, withdrawal, aggressive behavior and decline in educational achievement. The longer the parent and child are separated, the greater the child's symptoms of anxiety and depression become.1”
We cannot do anything about damage done by this administration in the past, but we as a collective whole can stand up for the things happening in the present. I am speaking to all of you and I am including myself in this. We need to get more involved in politics. We need to stand up for those who this administration is oppressing. It is our moral obligation to not turn our backs on those who need us the most. So get involved and do everything in your power to help make a difference. This is not the time to be apathetic. This is the time to fight for what is just. This is the time to scream so loudly for what is right that even God himself can hear us. You might feel like nothing more than a ripple in an ocean, but trust me when I say that together we will become a tsunami.
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