I am sick at heart and furious at what is being done in the name of “National security” and border safety.  America is a country of immigrants, successfully integrated into society, adding diversity , resilience and strength over the years.  The current punitive, racist, and cruel policies toward immigration must stop.  The entire administrative process must receive full scrutiny of a Congressional investigation, if not a United Nations investigation as crimes against humanity!.

“The Trump administration is seeking to criminally prosecute everyone who crosses the US-Mexico border, including parents. The policy is likely to separate thousands of families who arrive at the border by placing parents into the criminal justice system. Without their parents, children will be placed into the custody of ORR.” https://action.aclu.org/petition/separating-families

DO NOT STAND PASSIVELY WHILE THIS IS DONE IN YOUR NAME!  Take action, Object. Demand accountability for this outrageous policy. Human dignity and basic human rights cannot be subverted for spurious allegations of security. We will be converted from “America the Land of Opportunity” to “America the Land of Tyranny.” When basic respect for human dignity dies, there is no freedom.

Find actions here:

#WhereAreTheChildren: How to Help

 

Contact your Senators and Representative Immediately.  Here is my letter:

 

Dear Senator Toomey, Senator Casey, Representative Doyle:

I am a first generation American, daughter of Italian immigrants who came to America to seek a better life and to flee the rise of Fascism.  My grandmother arrived with a two year old, my Aunt Rosa, and a five year old, my Father Michael. If they had come to America today, the separation of parent and children at the border would have scarred our lives forever. I am outraged and horrified at the cruel practices in the name of “national security” being pursued at the Mexican border under the Trump Administration. People who come seeking political asylum from persecution and horrific conditions are being treated as criminals and imprisoned with no due process, no investigation of the validity of their need, and being torn from their children, who are sent into custodial care. Now over 1,500 children are somewhere, with no way for parents to know where they are, and no way to find them.  This is a cruelty unworthy of anything American.

I am furious that such abominable practices are being pursued under the guise of national security.  I demand that you open a complete Congressional investigation of this practice and halt this family separation immediately for the duration of the investigation. At the minimum, families should be reunited as soon as possible, and parents must know the fate of their children. The cruelty of this practice rises to the level of crimes against humanity.

Think of the sacrifices these people made to travel to our border in the hope of asylum and the possibility of making a better life in a safe place only to be cast into prison as criminals and have their children torn from them.  Imagine the total fear of those children in a place without a common language and in unfamiliar circumstances to be ripped from the arms of their mothers and sent to strangers, or an institutional holding place. This is not the America my grandfather and my Father fought for.  This is not the America that grew to its height on the contributions of immigrants from around the world. This is not the America I have served all my life.

The Trump Administration must be held to account for this cruelty.  Failure to act makes you complicit in this abhorrent behavior.

Sincerely,

Patricia M. DeMarco, Ph.D.
May 31, 2018