An ember of hope for families in Berks

It’s always darkest before the dawn, or so the saying goes.

When it comes to the seemingly endless human rights and child abuse crisis of migrants, the cliché offers little credibility or comfort.

The latest round of footage of the concentration camps where thousands of migrant children have been separated from their families and imprisoned flooded the media, forcing parents across the country to ask again, “How do I explain this to my kids?”

How to explain: The atrocity of separation and jailing children, and the increasing reports of widespread child rape perpetrated by border agents; The chilling visage of a Vice President utterly unaffected by the degradation of human beings; The inescapable suspicion that the situation will continue to worsen.

The anguish of one 3-year-old girl pierced through the cacophony this week. Sophia, who has a serious heart condition and had a heart attack earlier in her young life, needed her family intact, a DHS doctor warned.

But the warning went unheeded.

A border agent in the El Paso holding facility asked the girl who she wanted to go with, her mom or dad. Sophia’s impossible choice was her mom and she bawled when they started to take her dad away.

“You said you want to go with mom,” said the agent.

The repugnant incident went viral but the true horror may be how relatively mild an incident it was.

Much closer to home, we’ve been deeply troubled with how migrant families are mistreated at the federal Berks County Residential Center, still operating without a license, since long before “child separation” became a common phrase of our government.    

Yet, in the midst of darkness, we saw a glimmer of something.

Whatever his reasoning, Berks County Commissioner Kevin Barnhardt finally declared his support for shutting down the Berks facility.

Days after Barnhardt’s statement was made public, Carnegie Mellon mental health experts launched an education campaign about the physical and mental health damages children are enduring at Berks, urging Gov. Wolf to sign an emergency order to shut down Berks.

In the behavioral health field, there is overwhelming consensus regarding the harm of detention on children.

“It’s as strong as professional consensus on climate change,” said Anna Fisher, a Carnegie Mellon psychologist.

But what we do cling to this week is new momentum to shut down Berks for good. With County Commissioner Barnhardt’s about face, all that remains is Governor Wolf, who has said he opposes ICE practices and prefers that detainees be housed in communities but that he is constrained by legalities.

The PA Department of Human Services says the governor can only issue an emergency shut down order if inspectors find conditions to be dangerous to children, which, DHS says, isn’t the case.
Carnegie Mellon psychologists and psychiatrists disagree. So does the litany of reports of rape, neglect, and untreated depression and other mental health issues being ignored at Berks.

As the nation grapples with the consequences of child separation and concentration camps, we must turn our eyes to our own backyard. As we wrote three years ago:

The conditions at BCRC are inhumane and dangerous. Its continued operation is in violation of state regulations and federal law. In its inefficiency, it’s a particularly galling waste of tax dollars as it does not protect our communities and only harms women and children who seek safety.   

TELL HARRISBURG TO SHUT DOWN BERKS