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Children left alone to wander the streets or hide for days inside, too afraid of what may be waiting for them outside. No adults at home to care for them. In some homes, the electricity has been shut off.
Outside, the visible decay already of disorder. Garbage building up and reeking in the summer heat. Toys left abandoned in untended yards. When the sun sets is when fear really sets in.
No, this is not a scene from some apocalyptic movie. It is real life for children in today’s American heartland!
The Washington Post exposed the horrors happening right now in a town in northern central Ohio after an ICE raid separated the immigrant parents from the born-here American children, abandoning the children to find relatives or fend for themselves.
By now, you already know of the “camps” where immigrant children are being detained by themselves, separated from their parents. You probably also know about the “baby buses” to transport babes in diapers by themselves to detention camps.
Detention camps for kids is an outrage, reminiscent of 1930’s fascism in Europe. But if this is not enough, ICE is committing more outrage right under our noses. Literally creating a ghost town in at least one American community, the tragedy is on the lives of innocent young American citizens – children left to find their own way.
The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, known as ICE, was born from the fear after 911. Created in 2003, it was designed to be the strong-arm unit of George W. Bush’s new Department of Homeland Security. (I have always taken issue with W’s use of the word “homeland.”)
ICE replaced Immigration and Naturalization Services and its intent was enforcement and control. Under every President until now, ICE has been tempered. But now …
President Trump has vowed to remove anyone here illegally from Mexico and Central America. He doesn’t seem to understand – or he doesn’t care – that many individuals are not trying to enter illegally, but are following ICE’s instructions to appeal for sanctuary; they are running for their lives from drug gangs and abuse.
But what about those people in central Ohio? Many of these adults have been here for years, working at minimum wage jobs and living quietly and normally, raising children and doing the best they can for themselves and their community. This Ohio community, like many others across the country, was created because certain industries, like the agriculture industry in Ohio, needed workers willing to work those jobs; and most born-here Americans don’t want to work hard labor jobs, like in the fields, for minimum wage!
Finding workers willing to work hard, low-paying jobs, is nothing new. Ronald Reagan signed into law in 1986 an act for this very reason, to encourage employers to at least legally register immigrants who fill jobs that Americans won’t work. Reagan’s efforts were a failure and illegal immigration has nearly doubled since his time.
But, and this is important, most of these immigrants are not coming here to “invade” our country, as some, including Trump, are saying. They are coming here to work. And to live a good life caring for their families. That’s it.
Trump seems to think that by making immigrant communities into ghost towns, that Americans will rush in to fill those jobs. But that’s not the case. The Washington Post reports that in the Ohio case, deporting or detaining the immigrant workers has created a deficit of 15,000 jobs! No, Americans are not running to work the fields, and if the Ag companies cannot fill those 15,000 jobs, they go out of business!
But back to ICE:
ICE has waited for a President like Trump to operate unchained. Their tactics are as close to storm troopers as this country has ever come. And it is time to stop!
The issue of immigration is complex. It requires a balance of economics, population, and many other factors to solve. But solve it we must, and we must solve it fairly and equally – for everyone!
Rushing to action, without thought of consequences, which this President has done, is wrong! And we the American People must hold this President accountable by voting our views in the coming elections.
We must consider candidates who will approach issues like immigration in a rational intelligent way, candidates who don’t name-call or cast blame on others for their own failures.
We must consider the kind of America we want to be. A light to the world, or a dark place that harms innocent children? We decide!
