Ideas and Society

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Cover image: Eric Gay/Associated Press. 

The time has come once again for the citizens of the United States to examine whether the choices our government makes on our behalf are in keeping with our duty to protect and provide for the vulnerable children under our watch. We have been called upon by church leaders to put aside our own opinions, politics, and fears and to put the well-being of children ahead of our own adult interests. President Dallin H. Oaks has counseled, “We can all remember our feelings when a little child cried out and reached up to us for help. A loving Heavenly Father gives us those feelings to impel us to help His children. Please recall those feelings as I speak about our responsibility to protect and act for the well-being of children.”

In 2018, large numbers in the United States rose up to oppose the separation of migrant children from their families. They decried the prolonged detention of children in jail-like conditions. The uproar came from citizens from diverse backgrounds, including our former first lady, Laura Bush, who said, “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.” And yet three months later, we now see exactly that terrifying image brought to pass. Children remain in detention, separated from parents and loved ones. And now tent cities with barracks of children has become a reality.

The New York Times reported this month that at least 1,600 migrant children have been moved to a tent city in the deserts east of El Paso, Texas. They have no access to school. They are warehoused 20 to a shelter, barracks-style. Shelter workers confirmed that the government began a practice of rousing the children in the middle of the night to ship them to the Texas child-camps under cover of darkness, not informing them of the move until shortly before it was to happen.

“These images are eerily reminiscent of the Japanese American internment camps of World War Two, now considered to have been one of the most shameful episodes in US history,” Laura Bush’s prescient comments in June reflected.

The numbers of children in government detention have skyrocketed this year. The federal government now maintains custody of 13,000 migrant children, a fivefold increase from last year. Previously, the vast majority of migrant children in federal custody were held in private foster homes with access to school and legal representation.

In another cruel twist, a new tactic of arresting sponsors of migrant children has come to light. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) confirmed that they arrested at least 41 family-members or friends of detained migrant children who applied to take custody of an incarcerated child. An agency official told CNN that 70% of those arrests were for non-criminal undocumented status in the United States, not for a criminal offense. More and more children languish in detention because family members who come for them face arrest themselves. And the amount of time that migrant children spend in detention has doubled in the last year to an average 59 days.

This year, ICE reported that it would require an additional $200 million, on top of its allotted budget, to cover costs of detention and deportation. This overspending required the federal government to draw nearly $10 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), as well as pulling money from the Secret Service, other Department of Homeland Security operations, the Coast Guard, the Federal Air Marshals, and the Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction office.

President Dallin H. Oaks has spoken powerfully of our duty to the protect children of the world. He said:

“Although I do not speak in terms of politics or public policy, like other Church leaders, I cannot speak for the welfare of children without implications for the choices being made by citizens, public officials, and workers in private organizations. We are all under the Savior’s command to love and care for each other and especially for the weak and defenseless.

“Children are highly vulnerable. They have little or no power to protect or provide for themselves and little influence on so much that is vital to their well-being. Children need others to speak for them, and they need decision makers who put their well-being ahead of selfish adult interests.”

President Oaks went on to say, “We are speaking of the children of God, and with His powerful help, we can do more to help them. In this plea I address not only Latter-day Saints but also all persons of religious faith and others who have a value system that causes them to subordinate their own needs to those of others, especially to the welfare of children.”

Our country is housing children in child-camps in the desert and denying them any access to school. Our country is arresting parents and relatives for civil infractions when those family members come to take custody of their own children. Our country is pulling money from emergency assistance and offices that maintain security and defense systems in order to incarcerate children for non-criminal offenses.

Outrage is exhausting. It is certainly more convenient to rationalize these policies than to oppose them. But we have a duty from God to watch over and protect these children from physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual harm. Jesus Christ gave no qualifications or justifications that would absolve us of our responsibility here. We must do all we can as citizens to speak out on their behalf and insist upon policies that will protect tens of thousands of tender, innocent children.