Regarding the recent situation at our border: There is a particular statement I have seen and heard numerous times this past week, that has me deeply saddened. The statement is, "It's the Mother's fault, she shouldn't have put her child in danger of being taken from her in the first place!"
I feel very alone in my empathy for these mothers who have had their children ripped from their arms at our border. I am heartbroken over the desperation they must have felt. Anguished over the guilt and sadness they must be suffering now.
What happened to compassion and empathy?
I am not judging our laws or the processes to determine their fate, but I only ask that they be treated as decently as possible while they are in the United States' custody. If there is a fault, it is the conditions in their countries. People only leave their countries, their homes, and their people in desperation. It stands to reason that if they had a bearable choice, they'd rather live peaceably in their own countries. That being said; has anyone else thought about what the living conditions must have been like, in order to compel a Mother to take that risk? Traveling with a child or children, often by foot with very little money or food. Some knowing (others not), that they could be turned away or arrested? What must it have been like to live in a world where gambling on crossing illegally is a valid option?
Less than 2% of people crossing our southern border (illegally) are Mexican. The largest percentages are Honduran, Guatemalan, and El Salvadoran and most have the legal right to seek asylum under current U.S. immigration law (Temporary Protected Status program). Part of the recent mass influx of women from Honduras and El Salvador is due to the dates expiring for applying for asylum (expiration dates have been pushed out 18 and 6 months respectively). I have heard and read information on the atrocities that go on in those countries. I have never been to Honduras, El Salvador, or Guatemala, but I can still empathize with their plight. All I can say is this - Rather than being hated and feared, these women should be admired for their determination to risk everything for uncertain results - characteristics of a good mother, one who loves her children fiercely and uncompromisingly. What trauma for babies to lose that sense of love and peace by being separated from their mothers in this manner.
Regarding the less than 2% coming in from Mexico. First, I must tell you that you cannot fully understand unless you have seen it and lived it, yourself.
Women, children and families living and working in the dump (La Familia de Basura). By "work", I mean going out after the trash trucks have left at night; trudging thru filth, stench, and maggots. They open every garbage bag they can get their hands on, in search of food for their children. Next, they gather up as much cardboard as one person can carry. In the morning, one of the women in the home will take a 1 hour bus ride to the recycling facility to sell their cardboard for about 30 pesos (approximately $4.20 u.s.), the roundtrip bus ticket takes 14 of those pesos.
These women endanger their lives every single night by going out into the dump. Besides the obvious health hazards, there are men (vultures) waiting in the shadows. They are raped, which often produces more children. They are beaten. Many are kidnapped and sold into prostitution. Others are raped, beaten and then killed! Children are abandoned, often thru no choice of the Mother. Yet, they take the chance every single night because it is their "job."
They live in squatter's huts; separated from the actual dump, by a small creek of open sewage. Their houses are built from pallets, plastic sheets, broken blocks, cardboard, and whatever else they can find. They use the creek as their outhouse. They share a common water pump. They build kitchens out of rocks and metal grates. Their huts are built on the side of the hill, on the western slope of the dump. They sleep on the ground or on wooden pallets. When monsoon season comes, they wake up knee deep in mud and many find that their "home" has washed away - back into the dump.
They have no education, many were abandoned there as children, they don't ask for help and they don't expect it. Their eyes are hollow and full of fear. I have never seen eyes without hope until May, 2017 - and it broke my heart.
No, you definitely don't get a clear picture until you witness for yourself. Children eating food, covered in maggots. Children crying for mothers that didn't make it home this morning. Mother's quietly covering their bruises and wiping blood from the beating they received at "work" last night. Very YOUNG grandmothers wringing their hands, watching with worry for the daughter that didn't make it home last night.
I have a clear picture. So, before making, agreeing with, or defending the crude, inconsiderate, insensitive, and graceless statement that it is the Mother's fault, I challenge you: look at these pictures I have posted; this is a real family. Do some research, think with your heart, have some compassion. (Better yet - I will go with you to see for yourself) These children were already in danger and a mother will do anything to try and protect her young, even if it means... crossing the border illegally.
"Cursed is the man who withholds justice from the alien (foreigner), the fatherless or the widow. Then all the people shall say, "Amen!" - Deuteronomy 27:19
"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them." - Matthew 5:17