Children and adolescents are now being detained under terrible conditions at our southern borders. We suffer with them. Our own government policies have contributed to the untenable conditions now driving the refugees to our gates. 1. Temporary Protected Status, or “TPS” needs to be be granted to persons from Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador and Mexico now. This will give them a year and a half of legal status. After that, the dangers in their countries can be reconsidered annually. Once deemed safe, the refugees return to their homes. Meanwhile, the current burden on our courts and Border Patrol facilities is greatly alleviated, and the refugees can work and properly care for themselves. 2. Anyone under the age of eighteen who has survived the perilous trip north must have an attorney, and must never be subjected to expedited processing. These children know they can be killed for speaking out against the gangs, and they have no familiarity with our legal system. To permit the expedited deportation of unrepresented children is unconscionable. 3. Religious, human rights and civic groups must be allowed access to the U.S. Border Patrol detention facilities and to the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement shelters for unaccompanied minors. Community leaders can and should provide humanitarian support to the overwhelmed detention centers and shelters. We take seriously our government’s concerns for national security and the orderly control of immigration affairs. However, the solution does not lie in punishing the children. It is inexcusable to send back children to dangerous homelands from which they bravely escaped. It is the time to live into our values as a country, and remember the words on the Statue of Liberty.
Posted on: Wed, 09 Jul 2014 00:52:56 +0000
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