6/13/22

By Julie Swift

Children’s Week 2022, June 12-18

“Every year, the children’s community unites to celebrate kids and bring awareness to the challenges that they face.” This link includes events and actions for Children’s Week 2022: https://firstfocus.org/news/childrensweek-2022

“Between 2014 and 2020, at least 2,300 children died or went missing during their migration journey (IOM, 2020).” https://www.migrationdataportal.org/.../child-and-young...

Witness at the Border celebrates and honors children by remembering those who, fleeing poverty and violent, life-threatening environments, travel many treacherous miles to reach our southern border. Some end their journey reunited with family and some are held in child detention facilities throughout the country for varying amounts of time. (As of June 5, 2022 there were 595 children in CBP custody and 10,224 children in HHS custody in places like Fort Bliss Army Base in El Paso and a former oil field “man camp” in Pecos, Texas. As of 12/31/2021 the average number of children in ORR facilities was 12,511.)

We celebrate those children who have been able to start a new life with a chance for health and success. But we cannot forget those detained and separated from their families and those who wait with their families in dangerous border towns for their chance to seek asylum. We mourn the loss of too many – even one is too many –- children whose journey ended in death.

In 2018 and 2019 the following children died in or shortly after release from CBP custody. Say their names.

Darlyn Cristabel Cordova-Valle, 10, El Salvador

Jakelin Caal Maquín, 7, Guatemala

Felipe Gomez Alonzo, 8, Guatemala

Juan de León Gutiérrez, 16, Guatemala

Wilmer Josué Ramírez Vásquez, 2½, Guatemala

Carlos Hernandez Vásquez, 16, Guatemala

Barely of adult age, **Claudia Patricia Gómez González, 20, Guatemala **was shot by a US Border Patrol agent after crossing the US-Mexicoan border. Say her name.

**Mariee Juarez, 19 months, Guatemala **died shortly after being released from an ICE detention facility with her mother. Say her name.

If the children are our future, then we must nurture and protect them in the present.

#WelcomeWithDignity #FreeTheChildren #OpenEveryDoor #MigrantChildrenHaveHeartbeatsToo

#ChildrensWeek2022 #ItsAKidsIssue

Photo by Allan Mestel of Camilo Antonio Perez Bustillo and Marina Vasquez, Brownsville, TX 02-16-2020