Children are sleeping on cold cement floors with foil blankets and insufficient adult supervision. I traveled to Texas this month and learned about the abuse of children perpetrated by Americans due to the immigration status of those children. According to the Associated Press, “69,550 migrant children held in U.S. government custody over the past year, enough infants, toddlers, kids and teens to overflow the typical NFL stadium” (November 2019).
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| mural at a shelter in Austin, TX |
The same article states approximately 4,000 children are still in custody. I met with a number of professionals working in Texas, including an inspector who confirmed first hand that the situation described by the American Academy of Pediatrics in 2017 is still the case: “egregious conditions … including lack of bedding (e.g., sleeping on cement floors), open toilets, no bathing facilities, constant light exposure, confiscation of belongings, insufficient food and water, and lack of access to legal counsel, and a history of extremely cold temperatures”. Multiple professional workers stated this month that the children in U.S. custody as young as two years old were still being locked in chain-link fence enclosures inside concrete rooms without windows that the children called “dog cages”, with temperatures so cold that they were shivering and sick, calling the rooms “ice boxes”. There is photographic evidence of children sleeping on cement floors with only a foil “blanket”. I am sickened that anyone thinks that it is ok to treat young children like this. No matter what you think about their parents seeking a better life in the United States, young children don’t deserve the horrific conditions they are forced to endure.
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| Rio Grande, TX |
Will you join me in saying “no” to little kids growing up behind bars? One way to do this is by signing a petition with Amnesty international at https://act.amnestyusa.org/page/13951/action/1 and https://act.amnestyusa.org/page/44804/action/1?ea.tracking.id=spgcowst (type in your representative’s name and sign your name at the end of the pre-typed letter)
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| near Alvarado, TX |
According to Teachers Against Child Detention, “The average length of stay for a child detained by ICE ranges from 100 to 240 days, and these children are often held far from family members and without legal representation. Within the last year, the DHS Office of Inspector General has issued three reports finding poor treatment and spotty oversight in ICE facilities. ICE officials have been arrested for the sexual abuse of children in their care. (Source: National Immigrant Justice Center, ACLU).” Details are available on their website.
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| Laredo, TX |
Rev. Dr. Jay Alanis (one of my professors at Lutheran Seminary Program in the Southwest) asks: “Where does human dignity, justice, solidarity and accompaniment come from? Part of our national narrative is: "and liberty and justice for all." What do the words "for all" mean in the context of our national history and how are these reflected at the border? What does justice require of the nation and the church for asylum seekers and refugee seekers? Are they not deserving of human dignity and justice for all? Lutherans confess that "we are justified by grace through faith." If so, what are implications of our justification? Is baptism just "fire insurance," or does it have implications for human relating to the neighbor no matter who that neighbor is? Or is the neighbor only someone who looks like us? As a nation we benefit from the cheap labor of immigrants and the cheap prices we get on products because members of the human family are crafting cheap goods for our benefit and consumption. How can the local church provide sanctuary whether in New York or Texas via the stewardship of our national church budget? According to MLK Jr, the budget is a moral document."
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| Seminary library, Austin, TX |
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