Written by Nyla Jackson,Elements Writer
Written by Nyla Jackson
Rooms holding nine hundred people meant to support one-hundred twenty-five. No access to clean bathrooms, soap, clean water, and showers. Infants are forced to drink from filthy bottles and no clean diapers are supplied. Over four hundred allegations of sexual abuse or assault have been documented. Poor medical care. Lack of fresh food, if any is served. More than eight-hundred instances of physical abuse recorded, at least 29 fatalities, and seven suicides. A condition far worse than prison is occurring at our U.S.- Mexican Borders. In 2019, a sudden influx of immigrants from Mexico began to flood over the U.S.-Mexican border. Families carrying small backpacks and their children by hand for weeks’ worth of a journey. Only to be locked into a cage and tortured. It is still unclear why these families are fleeing from their country in such a rush.
Immigration has been an ongoing problem in the U.S., but how the abrupt flood has been handled is what caught the attention of millions. The young sobbing faces reacting from being torn away from their Mother’s arms were at the forefront of the news. The videos of the clearly evident overcrowded ICE center with people wrapping themselves in foil sheets and locked in cages. There were no separating young women from older men nor the supervision of any ICE employee. The image of the Salvadorian and his twenty-three- month old daughter lying face down in the Rio Grande waters. This is no longer a problem that we are facing as a country, but a crisis. What is being done in our government about this torture? About the molded food in the kitchens that are then served to the people. About the hundreds of children being transported to undocumented places in America and their Mother not knowing where to find them. About the pandemic that is thriving in a poorly managed center. About the racism that is now targeting the Hispanic communities. What is being done in a government that serves its people? In a government that protects its people. What crime is worth the punishment to this degree? Surely the crime of fleeing for one’s life is not deserving of this. Why is this no longer on news channels? Why has this gone silent? Why have the comments of President 45 gotten away from us and influenced the horrid treatment of these people? Why is treating children who were brought here by their parents without a chance to decline with such cruelty permitted? Surely there must be a reason for this treatment. Surely this ongoing crisis is being assessed and will be handed in a humane fashion. Surely the leaders that represent American The Great, are advising a plan to enforce our Immigration laws with some integrity. Don’t forget, there are still humans in cages.
References:
Miroff, Nick. “Under Coronavirus Immigration Measures, U.S. Is Expelling Border-Crossers to Mexico in an Average of 96 Minutes.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 31 Mar. 2020, www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/coronavirus-immigration-border-96-minutes/2020/03/30/13af805c-72c5-11ea-ae50-7148009252e3_story.html.
Bob.Price.Texas. “PHOTO: Migrant Father-Daughter Pair Found Dead on Border Riverbank.” Breitbart, 26 June 2019, www.breitbart.com/border/2019/06/25/photo-migrant-father-daughter-pair-found-dead-on-border-riverbank/.
Sands, Geneva. “Arrests on the US-Mexico Border Continue to Increase.” CNN, Cable News Network, 6 Aug. 2020, www.cnn.com/2020/08/06/politics/us-mexico-border-migrants/index.html.