Migrant Children Locked In Cages

2024 Author: Steven Freeman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 08:15

In 32 × 32 foot electified cages and guarded 24 hours a day, this is how children and families live who have been separated by the US Border Patrol following President Donald Trump's “zero tolerance” policy.

"La ice box", "La Perrera", "Campo Isabel" and "Campo Úrsula" are just some of the centers that are being used to house families, parents and children before or after being separated. Heartbreaking testimonies of mothers who had their babies taken away while breastfeeding. Others have explained that after being arrested they had been separated from their children to take fingerprints and take registration photos, but that at the end of the process they had never seen the children again.

I just came out of a 'processing center' known as 'The Ice Chest.' It is nothing more than a prison,”said Peter Welch, a Vermont state congressman, on Twitter.

"The children were 'in a 32 × 32-foot wire mesh cage locked with chains,'" Jeff Merkley, Oregon state senator, told CNN after visiting "Ursula Field" in McAllen, Texas. Merkley also posted a terrifying video released by Propublica.com in which the cries of children separated from their parents are heard shaking the networks.

Many people - including Laura Bush, the former first lady and wife of George W. Bush - have compared detention centers to concentration camps where thousands of Japanese and Japanese-born citizens of the United States were detained during World War II.

Senator Merkley, a Democrat, is just one of many politicians and public figures who are raising their voices to demand an end to the practice of separating parents from children when crossing the border that started a couple of weeks ago.

Journalists also have been able to visit the detention centers, but have been instructed not to photograph or take video inside these places. In the face of the protests, the United States Customs and Border Protection Service (CBP) has decided to publish some images that portray the so-called "cages".

"This is probably the most emotional and heartbreaking moment of our trip," said Chris Van Hollen, senator from Maryland, on Twitter about his visit to Campo Isabel in Texas. “We met with 11 mothers who are in this center. They were separated from their children. When they were separated they were given no reason to do so. They are seeking asylum in this country… they don't know when and if they will ever meet with them again.”

The senator organized a trip with other legislators to that state and through multiple messages on networks he has expressed outrage at what happened to these families and their treatment, which he described as "despicable."

The crisis unleashed by these separations has caused a wave of protests and the condemnation of international figures of the stature of Thalía, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Jorge Ramos and many more.