Undocumented Children are Still Children

Earlier this week, a congressional hearing was held in Washington, DC to discuss the impacts of immigration raids, conducted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials, on children and families.

ICE representatives, community leaders from across the nation and national organization leaders presented testimony.

One of those who testified about the academic impacts of those raids on the children was San Rafael, California Principal Kathryn Gibney.

Gibney testified that as a result of raids conducted within her community over a year ago, "she is still seeing rising absenteeism and falling test scores."

And it's not going to end anytime soon.

Yesterday, coincidentally, ICE went back to the same area and conducted another raid. Obviously, concerns and recommendations made in Washington on how to minimize the trauma of the event on the children fell on deaf ears.

Reports are coming in that children were not only traumatized by the events but were put right in the middle of them.According to reports:

Bahia Vista Principal Juan Rodriguez saw ICE rounding up people on the children's route to walk to school.

Youth from Canal Alliance's afterschool programs who were waiting for an early morning school bus called Director JuanCarlos Arauz to report seeing a "command post" at Mi Tierra Market and ICE vehicles driving up and down neighborhood streets. Youth text messaged friends and families to spread the news while others ran home.

Today, the schools are reporting multiple absences:

Seventy nine children at Bahia Vista Elementary, sixty five at San Pedro Elementary, and fifty three at Davidson Middle School stayed home today.

You don't have to be Dr. Phil to know that these raids are traumatizing children and yet the stories barely make Page 1 of the newspapers.

Why?

Is it because they are the children of undocumented parents?

It shouldn't make a difference. Children are children the world over and they deserve to be safeguarded by the government of the country they live in.

It's a demand that we make of every country on the planet and condemn those who don't adhere to this universal law.

To conduct raids or establish an intimidating presence where children are known to be with their undocumented parents doesn't justify the fear and terror that will stay with these children for a very long time, if not the rest of their lives.

ICE's actions may satisfy a short-term goal but it creates far-reaching consequences:

Children will learn to fear and mistrust government authorities. It may not matter now but as they grow up they will have little use to cooperate with laws and authorities.

The psychological impact of seeing parents rounded up, strangers waiting outside their schools and homes, strange cars and vans cruising neighborhood streets and angry-sounding men and women pounding on doors of homes and demanding to be let in, have to have an effect on these impressionable children who don't understand why this is happening in their communities.

It's an impact that will need to be treated through counseling or more, and paid for by the state or federal government.

In yesterday's raid in Marin County, with all the terror that was inflicted, only 17 people were arrested.

That number doesn't even come close to the number of children who are suffering as a result of those 17 arrests and who don't deserve to be subjected to this treatment by a country that touts itself for its humanitarian good deeds.

Where is our humanity now?

Comments

[clr2]

These children should be educated in their own countries. We spend BILLIONS to provide an education and health care to people who don't belong here. We need to spend those BILLIONS on our own citizens. All ILLEGAL ALIENS should be deported, those who hire them should be heavily fined and jailed, and we should return to the original intent of the 14th amendment and do away with anchor babies.

[Rule Of Law]

It shouldn't make a difference. Children are children the world over and they deserve to be safeguarded by the government of the country they live in.
__________­__________­__________­__________­__________­__________­__________­__________­__
There are children in America being married off as 5th wives to 50 year old men and forced to have babies. There are children selling their bodies on the streets of every large city in this country. There are children in India, China, Malaysia, Iraq ( and most Middle Eastern countries) being used for slave labor to make the nifty consumer things you own and for kiddy porn for the perverts in Amsterdam. And there are 10,000 children dying in Africa everyday from starvation, disease and war. I feel for them all.

But when parents, adults who should know better, deliberately place their own children in harms way by illegally entering another country--crossing killing deserts, dealing with the brutal "coyotes" who traffic in human beings, living 20 to a room and exposing them to pesticides and herbicides that can kill them as easily as any of the other things they've faced--you need to ask, where is the responsibility of the Parents?

[mediamarv]

ICE=Gestapo, with a flag pin of course!

[clr2]

ICE = government finally doing its job. DEPORT ALL ILLEGAL ALIENS!