Letter: A reminder of immigrant children’s plight

Graphic by Lori Deaton

Cathy Holt speaks my mind in her excellent letter regarding the appalling policy of forced separation of immigrant children from family [“Melt the ICE!” Aug. 8, Xpress].

Thank you for not letting us forget this ongoing and horrific violation of these most vulnerable persons detained in for-profit concentration camps. So glad to learn of the “Grannies Respond” movement.

— Clare Hanrahan
Asheville

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5 thoughts on “Letter: A reminder of immigrant children’s plight

  1. jason

    We need to report all illegal alien activity in Asheville. Call the police and call ICE. Do not let these people live in the shadows anymore. It’s time to take back our neighborhoods and community!

  2. Enlightened Enigma

    If the illegal parents had not brought in the illegal children there would be no problem. Stop ALL immigration forever. We have plenty, thanks.

  3. Stan Hawkins

    There is no doubt that the protection of children is a legitimate concern. Children are abused all over the world as outlined in the attached report dated 2016 from the US State Department. The abhorrent appetite of those that would abuse children is an abomination. Please refer to the attached just below, Mexico details can be found beginning on page 267. The US also certainly has room for improvement.

    https://www.state.gov/documents/organization/258876.pdf

    Where is CNN, MSNBC, Washington Post, NewYork Times, Asheville Citizens Times, and Mountain Express on this issue? Where are you on this issue, and how do you know that we are not first making an effort to prevent the trafficking and abuse of these same children?

    • B E Vickroy

      Stan … thanks for link to official findings re:human trafficking. Too much info to digest in one sitting [or several]. But to extrapolate from a part of that info – the part that’s relevant to the subject/claims in the letter. Treatment of children at our borders. Tens of thousands of children & adults claiming to be their parents.
      Human trafficking [slavery] has as many shapes as it has practitioners. Focusing on one facet – trafficking as an economic enterprise. $40,00 if transported from outside of Mexico. $3,000 if within Mexico. A part of that fee, along with false documents, is coaching in what to say to successfully claim asylum.[which can include taking a child along to game the process]
      And that brings us to the children so “badly mistreated at our borders”. The logistics of sorting out the fraud from the truth are daunting. [Remember that each of those TENS OF THOUSANDS is an individual] What can be characterized by some as a “concentration camp”; might actually be the imperfect methods by overwhelmed agencies, used to sort things out — with the safety of the child as the underlying motive.

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