4/12/21

By Josh Rubin

Our voices are not enough.

Here is what we say. We say that if you deny the right to migrate to people whose lives depend on it, but tell them that we will take their children in, you will separate children from their families.

We say that if you won’t acknowledge that aunts and uncles and grandparents and brothers and sisters need to be kept with children, you will create unaccompanied minors. Also known as frightened children.

We say that if you concentrate on finding convention centers and military bases to line up cots for these children, and continue to tangle up families in paperwork and suspicion, so that children will remain in these overcrowded, slapdash shelters, you will frighten and traumatize the children.

We say that we have seen this before, as we get for-profit companies involved in the care of these children, that the length of time that children are kept from family members grows, as the coffers of these companies fill.

We say the damage that is done to already traumatized children locked into these emergency shelters will last a lifetime, while many congratulate themselves on our “compassionate” response.

That is what we say with our voices. But our voices are not enough.

April 30. Walk for the Children. To the gates of Fort Bliss.

Because our voices are not enough.