A few weeks ago, I had a painful discussion with someone who at one time was very close to me about the family separations and the concentration camps and the bigotry that guides how migrants are treated. Her reasoning was every right-wing talking point- they shouldn't have come; it's all fake news.
My heart has been breaking for so long, I honestly don't know how much more I can take.
Because, family separation was suppose to be a deterrent, right? A totally inhumane act to scare migrants from seeking asylum in this country. But still they came.
Now they're put into camps, waiting forever to be processed. Or left squandering at the border with no place to go. Yet still they come.
My heart just aches for the mother with young girls who fled with the clothes on her back- walked countless miles to a place where she knows her daughters won't be kidnapped and raped.
I cry for the father of young boys, who is risking everything so his sons won't be forced to join a gang and possibly killed for refusing to commit atrocities.
In this age of technology, terrified migrants must know what awaits them at the border, but they come anyway. We know the conditions they face when they arrive. What are the conditions of the home they left behind? What could possibly make someone give up everything they know- their culture, their homes and flee to a country that once held the promise of a better life but now will only cage you when you arrive?
I am so sick of hearing about the "immigration problem". Immigration is not a problem. But the conditions that create mass migrations is. I would much rather see our resources and man power go to Central America than a bogus war with Iran. I would much rather be fighting gangs who are terrifying people so much they pack up and leave than fighting over a plot of oil.
These people will us no harm. They are not murderers or rapists. Their only 'crime' is wanting to be safe. They want nothing more than an opportunity for a better life for their children, one created by their hard work, not hand-outs.
Walk a mile in their shoes. Walk five miles. Ten. Twenty.
My heart is just so broken. How could people be so cruel?