Separating Children from Their Families is not the Lord’s Work!

Separating children from their families is the work of… monsters.

I’ve been researching for days on how to help. What can I do to help all the children that are in shelters across the United States? I came up with a list that is at the bottom of this post and I’m writing this post for all of those who are equally outraged. I’m appalled at what’s happening! Our President has already shown his lack of empathy when he uttered the words, “Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything.“ I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised by his mandate that children be ripped from the arms of their parents. And I’m not being dramatic. That’s what our border control is being ordered to do. The people protecting our border took a job advertising: Who are we: CBP is a premier law enforcement agency that safeguards America’s borders. Every day, CBP protects the public from dangerous people and materials attempting to cross the border. I can’t imagine what some of the law enforcement officers must be feeling when they have to take away a screaming child from her mother. I’m waiting for a border patrol hero willing to stand up and do what’s right and refuse to take an innocent child away from her parents. There comes a time when doing the right thing requires courage and strength of character. There comes a time when doing what’s right trumps blindly following orders and harming innocent children.

I know the trauma it causes a child when they’re taken from their parents. As a foster mother, I’ve stayed up all night with crying infants after being removed from their home, seen the gaze of fear and confusion on toddlers faces, and taken care of a three-year-old who asked for his mother every day. It was heartbreaking and those were children that were removed because their lives were in danger. Now, we’re taking children away from loving parents who have uprooted their lives in order to keep their children safe.

What’s Happening

It’s legal to seek asylum in the United States. Families that seek asylum and families that cross the border illegally are having their children taken from them. The Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) which is a division of the Department of Health and Human Services is responsible for placing the children in shelters, foster care or in mental health facilities. There is a network of about 0ne hundred shelters in eleven states. Southwest Key has shelters in Texas, Arizona, and California.

When there is an influx of children and not enough beds ORR can place the children in an Influx Care Facility: Influx Care Facility – A type of care provider facility that is opened to provide temporary emergency shelter and services for unaccompanied alien children during an influx or emergency. Influx care facilities may be opened on Federally owned or leased properties, in which case, the facility would not be subject to State or local licensing standards; or, at facilities otherwise exempted by the State licensing authority.

The children are kept in the shelters or Influx Care Facilities until a sponsor can be found who will care for them while they wait for immigration proceedings. Basically, we already had thousands of children in shelters who entered the United States unaccompanied and now since the mandate by the TRUMP administration to separate children from their parents we have an influx of children needing care. I agree with Ms. Pelosi: “This is barbaric. This is not what America is. But this is the policy of the Trump administration.”

It gets worse. Immigrant children do not have the right to an attorney. Three-year-olds have had to represent themselves in court!

The more I read, the angrier I get. Those of us who know that what we are doing to children is wrong must speak out! I’ve been searching for ways to help. Here’s what I found so far. If anyone has discovered more ways to help, please feel free to add a comment here or on Facebook.