[Image description: Photo of a person and child with text: National Day of Action for Children. #FamiliesBelongTogether]
You know those moments that you read about in history books and think, "How could people who were around then have let that happen?" Well, we're in one of those moments. Our time is right now, because our nation's treatment of immigrant children, women, and families is devastatingly wrong. We cannot let the practice that Trump has put into place of purposefully separating children from their moms and families to continue. We cannot allow human rights violations in the name of immigration enforcement to go on.
This is our time to rise.
This is our time to stand up for each other, to not let human rights abuses continue, and to call Trump out on all his destructive lies, his harmful policies, and his dehumanizing name-calling ("animals") of the kind that history shows can lead to genocide.
What’s going on? Earlier this month, at the direction of U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who serves under Trump, it became official US policy to routinely and intentionally separate children from their parents at our southern border. Hundreds of children have been ripped from their families: 658 kids in the first 13 days of the program alone.
And last week the ACLU released a report with horrifying details about the rampant abuse of children in custody at detention centers in our nation.
The situation is critical. On May 23, Claudia Gonzalez, a young woman from Guatemala was murdered by a CBP officer at the US - Mexico border. There are hundreds of stories like this, and thousands more of children and families torn apart by Trump’s deportation force. In response, there has been an upsurge of outrage on social media and communities across the nation. #WhereAreTheChildren has been trending, and people are desperate to find ways to help and take action to protect immigrant children.
Trump's facts are wrong, his name-calling is wrong, his policies are wrong, his callously hurting children is wrong... and we can't let his destructive actions become the final say that our possible future great grandchildren will read in their history books.
The unhinged and false narrative of Donald Trump is harming our children, hurting our nation, and damaging our economy:
FACT: There is no flood of immigrants coming north as Trump has said. In fact, there has been net negative migration at our southern border for years, in that more people are (and have been) going south across the border than have been coming north.
FACT: There is no tide of murderers coming into the U.S. as Trump has said. In fact, research show that recent immigrants are significantly less likely to commit crimes than anyone else.
FACT: There is not a drain on our economy from immigrants as Trump has said. In fact, immigrants are a key economic engine in our nation, working in every field and paying taxes. Immigrants or the children of immigrants started 40 percent of our Fortune 500 companies, as well as many small and medium-sized businesses, employing many people and fueling our economy and lifting our communities and families. And, as Money CNN reported: “The truth is that undocumented immigrants contribute more in payroll taxes than they will ever consume in public benefits.”
FACT: It’s not a crime to apply for asylum. In fact, it’s a right protected by our national and international laws. Even the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, part of the Department of Homeland Security, found that 88 percent of the mothers and children entering at our southern border had credible fear, including escaping extreme sexual and gender-based violence, that meets the threshold for qualifying for asylum, which is a protected international human right. Yet most are being stopped from being able to exercise their legal right.
It's time to speak out, to stand for children, to spread the word around to your friends about what's happening so they can stand up, too, and to make your voice heard.
#WhereAreTheChildren? They are being purposely separated from their parents and put in detention by the Trump administration's horrifying policies. #FamiliesBelongTogether
This is not okay.
*This cannot be who we are as a nation. Rise and join us at the Day of Action for Children - Seattle, Friday, June 1, 12:00 P.M., at the U.S. Court House.
https://action.momsrising.org/survey/DayofAction4Children_Seattle/?t=blog
We can do better than this. We have to protect our children. It's time that we together bend the arc of history toward justice and away from tragedy.
Thank you for protecting children and our democracy.
P.S. Have other obligations on Friday and can’t be there in person? Don’t worry. You can still make your voice heard. Make a call to Congress: 1-855-440-1800
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