I WAS LUCKY. I had a great Fathers' Day, but there were so many others who didn't.
While I was enjoying playing with my grandson, who's about the same age as this little girl shown in the above photo, the Trump administration was taking her away from her mother. The above photo, by Pulitzer Prize-winning Getty Images photographer John Moore, shows a 2-year-old child crying helplessly as her mother is searched by a government agent.
My daughter (the teacher) brought her son to her classroom as she cleaned up on her last day before summer vacation. My little grandson, in unfamiliar surroundings, grew anxious when he couldn't see his mother across the room. When he saw her, he ran to her, asking, "Hug! Hug!"
When I think, how would my grandson react to having his mother taken away, the anger wells up inside of me. Feeling those real emotions, the separations taking place hundreds of miles away on the U.S. border with Mexico -- become personal.
I can only imagine the immense fear in the little girl as her mother after the traumatic experience of having her mother frisked that way. The photographer doesn't know the fate of the child and mother in the photo. They were put on a bus and whisked away.
We also can't imagine what will happen to the two-year old girl when ICE separates her from her mother -- the current policy of the Trump administration.The administration's zero-tolerance policy has separated about 2000 children --infants to teens -- from their parents, most of whom have applied for asylum, a legal request. By separating the children from their parents, the Trump administration deems the parents guilty before any hearings or judicial action.
Most of the news footage and photos have been of boys in their early teens. That begs the question: Where are the infants and toddlers? What happened to that little girl?
We got a partial answer Monday when Pro Publica released a gut-wrenching recording of a pair of young children being interviewed by their caretakers. Listen, if you dare. Warning: Highly emotional:
After listening to that recording and you aren't outraged, you have no heart.
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Former First Lady Laura Bush called the Trump policy "immoral" and likened the actions to the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II in a searing op-ed in the Washington Post.
"Our government should not be in the business of warehousing children in converted box stores or making plans to place them in tent cities in the desert outside of El Paso," she wrote. "These images are eerily reminiscent of the Japanese-American internment camps of World War II, now considered to have been one of the most shameful episodes in U.S. history. We also know that this treatment inflicts trauma; interned Japanese have been two times as likely to suffer cardiovascular disease or die prematurely than those who were not interned."
Since her oped was published, all of the other former First Ladies, inclcuding Michelle Obama, Rosalynn Carter and Hillary Clinton and current First Lady Melania Trump, issued statements with similar sentiments.
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"As many of us spend the day celebrating our fathers and father-figures, we know there are potentially thousands of fathers who won’t be celebrating Father’s Day this weekend because of the human rights abuses that are happening at our southern border," said Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif.
"This is a crisis we cannot ignore -- and that’s why I recorded a short video to talk with you about it. Harris, a daughter of immigrants from India and the Caribbean, sent out this tweet on Father's Day. Watch it here.
An angry Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, was interviewed Monday on MSNBC. She called out Republican senators who have not taken a stand on this issue as "gutless wonders."
"They need to step up and act like decent Americans who understand the history of our country and the role that immigrants have played," Hirono said. "The word 'hypocrisy' doesn't even begin to describe the fact that more of them have not come forward."
Sen. Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., a Thai American, sent out these tweets Monday.
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Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., ssued the following statement after demanding and being given access to the Federal Detention Center in SeaTac, Washington to look at conditions and speak with 174 immigrant women detained inside:
“What I heard from the women today being held at the detention center was heartbreaking. They are there only because of the Trump administration’s cruel new ‘zero tolerance’ policies of family separation. They spoke of fleeing threats of rape, gang violence and political persecution. ...
“Of the 206 immigrants being held there, 174 are women. I spent almost three hours meeting with the women, almost all of whom are asylum seekers. ... Over a third of the women were mothers who had been forcibly separated from their children, who range in age from 1-year-old to teenagers. The vast majority of the mothers have not spoken with their children in weeks and they have no idea where they are. Most have been held in detention for more than two weeks and many for over a month.
“They should not be held in federal prison, but the women I spoke to said SeaTac is the first place they feel they’ve been treated as human beings – thanks to the standards in place at government-owned and operated facilities, rather than the privately contracted facilities of DHS.
“The women talked of being held in Border Patrol facilities that they termed the ‘dog pound,’ because of inhumane fenced cages, and the ‘ice box,’ because temperatures are frigid and detainees are given no blankets or mats. They also spoke of lack of access to food and water, and said they suffered humiliation and verbal abuse from border agents who called them ‘filthy’ and ‘stinky,’ and told them that their ‘families would not exist anymore’ and that they would “never see their children again.’
“What I saw today is simply not who, we, as a country should be. This is cruel and inhumane treatment and we cannot allow it to continue on our watch.”
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Comedian Aasif Mandvi, a former Daily Show correspondent, wasn't kidding around when he took to Twitter today to share a Father’s Day message through a series of tweets #FathersDay:From a doctor friend- “He was small and seated on an oversized recliner in the ER. Surrounded by three male facility appointed guardians and a police officer. I asked him in Spanish “how do you feel?” He replied “Triste”. Sad.
The sad part is he is being held in our country separated from his parents for over a month. Now the “clinician” from his holding facility has decided he needs psychiatric care because he’s acting out.
This “clinician” says he “won’t be reunited with his parents until he learns to behave”. So I hugged the child while he cried and while I cried.
We are torturing refugee families in our country. These poor children are so traumatized. This has to stop. Where is our humanity and compassion?”
We must do something, take to the streets, something. Children are being held hostage while @realDonaldTrump plays politics attempting to pressure the Democrats to approve his wall. Lies are spread. Our Gov't is spineless and children are being tortured.
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The emotional image, used on the front page of many newspapers besides the Daily News, drew a reaction from model Chrissy Teigen:
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