Echo from Michigan Dominicans - migrant children mistreatment by Donald Trump Administration

We denounce in the strongest possible terms the unconscionable mistreatment of children on the U.S.-Mexico border by the Donald Trump Administration, and call on our elected leaders to take all measures necessary to provide them with adequate food, shelter, and health care — and, most importantly, to reunite them with their families.

Jesus said, “Let the children come to me, and do not prevent them; for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these” (Mt 19:14).

That children “such as these” — infants, toddlers, youngsters — reportedly have been subject to horrific overcrowding, hunger, lice infestations, sleeping on concrete floors, and other unhygienic and inhumane conditions is an assault on our human decency and fundamental moral values. It should have all Americans, as the prophets of old, rending our garments and weeping in anguish at the depravity.

It is not enough that children at the facility in Clint, Texas, are being moved to other facilities after the spotlight of public attention has exposed the scandalous way this administration is treating these migrant children. What other facilities are holding children under similarly harsh conditions? These and other children must be reunited with their parents or with relatives residing in the United States who must be able to claim them safely.

This is not the first time we have learned about the inhumanity visited upon children at the border. 

In 2018, the international community was aghast at stories about this administration’s treatment of migrant children, separating them from their families and placing them in cages for days on end in clear violation of the Flores Agreement, which provides that children may not be confined for more than 20 days.

As members of Congress take steps to address the urgent humanitarian crisis on the border created by this Administration’s venomous approach to immigration, the top priority must be to ensure the welfare and well-being of God’s beloved — children such as these — now and into the future.

Adrian Dominican Sisters, General Council, Michigan