| When enforcing the law means locking up children, the law must be questioned.
 Liam Ramos’ elementary school principal started to cry when asked about how Liam’s arrest impacted other children. “His friends notice that he’s not here,” Principal Jason Kuhlman said. “Then when it hit the media, they start seeing his face on TV… it’s like, how do you explain that, when you start missing someone out of your classroom? How do you have that conversation with a five-year-old?”
In Liam’s school, 24 parents, along with several others, two of whom were arrested at school just yesterday, have been detained by ICE. ICE hasn’t stopped at school age children either, earlier this week, two-year-old Chloe Renata Tipan was spirited out of Minnesota by ICE agents eager to put this toddler behind bars in Texas. Chloe joins the swelling crowd of nearly 4,000 children who were torn from their homes and confined in ICE detention operations. ICE admits that it held at least 400 children in custody longer than permitted by the court.
The Independent, a centrist British online news site, reported that legal advocates for the children detained by ICE have documented injuries suffered by children and a lack of access to sufficient medical care. One child bleeding from an eye injury wasn’t seen by medical staff for two days. Medical staff told one family whose child got food poisoning to only return if the child vomited eight times. Children were getting diarrhea, heartburn, stomach aches, and they were fed broccoli and cauliflower that were moldy and had worms.
In spite of the obvious harm to children and the crazed execution of Operation Metro Surge, too many public officials are looking down rather than speaking up. Many of these same public officials are looking frantically for an excuse for why two Americans were shot dead by aggressive, poorly trained sworn government officers. Some are even peddling a dangerous new policy narrative that if citizens actively resist ICE actions, they should be executed. Although it’s a little disingenuous, since so many of them celebrated the January 6th insurrection and applauded the pardons of those who attacked police officers.
It’s simply impossible for a person of faith or decency to craft a plausible argument for locking up toddlers. To be sure, some elected leaders are pushing back on this unprecedented federal roundup. Yesterday, Philadelphia’s City Council voted 15 to 2 requiring federal agents to unmask and guaranteeing constitutional protection for citizens. The U.S. Senate’s bi-partisan vote to block funding for the Department of Homeland Security indicates that the constitutional infringement and extraordinary use of force by the administration is eroding the President’s coalition. Senator McCormick’s hollow explanation for voting to continue unchecked Department of Homeland Security funding highlights the President’s strenuous grip on his party and his intention to keep this assault going. Fortunately, McCormick’s vote put him in the minority. But let’s be honest, given the facts on the ground, the vote to suspend DHS funding should have been unanimous.
We urge you to consider adopting our core belief that every adult has a moral obligation to nurture and protect every child. The fact that innocent children are behind bars today is an affront to our humanity and grotesque evidence that we are failing in our basic and most important duty. Make sure that every elected official, the editors of your local newspapers, radio call-in shows, your house of worship, and your employer know that we must redouble our commitment to all that defines us as human.
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