Larry Kerschner letter to the editor of 6/20/18
Larry Kerschner letter to the editor of 6/20/18
The Trump Administration’s ripping children from their parents is a heartless method of blackmail to gain leverage against immigrants who come to the US for asylum. Trump makes this plain in his statement of “No Wall – No Children”
The ACLU released a report documenting the abuses that minors face in US detention facilities including being sexually assaulted, denied medical care, and run over by vehicles. Actor George Takei stated that the situation in these internment camps are worse than the camps he and his family were forced into during WWII.
Jenn Budd, 47, a US Customs and Border Protection officer from 1995 to 2001 says there is no excuse for current officers not to lay down their weapons and refuse to detain children separated from their parents.
White House officials continue to lie about the reason for the detainments, saying they are just following a law ― except no law ordering immigrant families to be separated exists. Attorney General Jeff Sessions defended the Trump administration’s policy of separating immigrant children from their families at the border by citing a passage from the New Testament “I would cite you to the Apostle Paul and his clear and wise command in Romans 13, to obey the laws of the government because God has ordained them for the purpose of order.” Sessions neglects to finish the passage which goes on to say that those who do right will be commended and those who do wrong should be afraid.
After Congress passed the Fugitive Slave Act in 1850, this passage was used to justify allowing slaves who had escaped to the North to be forcibly returned to their owners in the South. The Nazis in Germany and apartheid South Africa quoted Romans 13 to give religious authority to genocide and apartheid.
There is also evident hypocrisy of anyone claiming to be “pro-life” or “pro-family” while doing nothing about this mistreatment of children and families at the border. Ilyse Hogue, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America wrote “Trump, the GOP Congress that refuses to stand up to him, and their followers’ weak attempts to claim the ‘pro-life’ and ‘pro-family’ mantle dissolve in the face of this latest dictate. Not only do they believe the lives of immigrant and brown children don’t matter, they campaign on racism and use these children as pawns.”
The US talks the talk about valuing children but we are the only UN member state not to have signed the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Like Boco Haram and the Lords Resistance Army, the US wants to be able to have children under 18 as members of its military.
Two conservative groups, the Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable have issued statements which plainly and directly appeal to the Trump administration to immediately cease stripping young children from their parents.
Dozens of advocacy groups, including MoveOn and the American Civil Liberties Union, have joined to organize the Families Belong Together national day of action scheduled for Saturday, June 30.