How would you feel if you were locked in a cage? Well, last year the increase of immigrant children being separated by their parents grew tremendously. They were not only separated from their parents and family, but they were being put in cages as if they were animals. These kids are being blamed for something they have no control of. Although they might come to this country illegally, they don’t deserve to be treated any less than us Americans.
They are being treated as if they aren’t humans—it’s more as if they were animals. The fact that ICE lost more than 1475 children is crazy. They are taking these children away from their family where they feel safe, and the fact that they go on and say they “lost” these innocent children is odd. On top of that, many children have lost their lives from this. If COVID-19 was not around, the idea of releasing the children would probably have not crossed the government’s mind. Lots of reports have stated that the children were denied showers, clean clothes, and hot meals. The detention centers have been described as cold and little to no place to even sleep. They use aluminum blankets to cover them up, which is a very light blanket and not enough to keep them warm on top of that they use mats where they sometimes have to share to sleep on or they else have to sleep on the cement benches. Sometimes the guards will take those items from them, and there is no place for them to sleep but the floor.
This isn’t right at all. First off, these are CHILDREN, they should not be treated this way. Some of these kids range from babies to teenagers and up. This has been going on for too many years, and it’s only now with everything happening in this world I am seeing more people addressing this situation. These kids need our help. Coming from a family who immigrated from Mexico, all we simply want to do is to live a better life and to make money to help our families. We are not here to cause violence or start crimes or even “steal jobs.” All we want to do is provide for our families and be somewhere safe where we can achieve our goals and live a better life. We are not here for anything else.
This problem is not right and it’s upsetting. It needs to be solved immediately and here are a few things I believe would help:
- Sign petitions
- Donate to organizations that help the children
- Keep protesting till these families are reunited
- Reunite these children with their parents and families and never allow them to be separated regardless of the situation
- Open the eyes of those who think this is okay and educate them on why it isn’t
- Let these children out of these cages
Aylin Zamora – De La Salle – DMSF