Family Separation=Fear and dehumanization

Tania Lopez

Humanities 9  

Ms.Portugal

12/21/18

                                              Should we continue Family Separation?

        Do you think that people should be separated from their families, kids be put in cages, and immigrant parents not knowing where their kids are, just for nothing because of misjudgment? January 20, 2017 was when our President Donald Trump declared that immigrant parents should be separated from their children. Since then, this is what happened at the border near Mexico when a 7 year old Guatemalan girl named Jakelin Caal was attempting to cross but her family got detained, Michael Brice- Saddler explains, “The 7-year-old Guatemalan girl who died in U.S.

Border Patrol custody was healthy before she arrived” (Saddler). Knowing that this tragic event happened is a primary reason why our community should stop family separation. Not only do tragic events such as death happen but it results in fear and dehumanization. Apart from that, detention centers are dismal because they make immigrants look like criminals even though they have no negative intentions and are just searching for a better life.

Family separation at the border is something that should be addressed because people shouldn’t be having to fear for their lives and their kids. In a source from New York Times, author Jack Healy explained that President Trump was separating undocumented families from their children when they were crossing the border, a person named Angelica, whom Healy interviewed

explained,“It feels like an eternity to know I won’t be able to see my daughter and I can’t hold her,” she said in a telephone interview, speaking through an interpreter. “I feel like I’m going to die. I feel powerless”(Angelica). When Angelica explains this horrifying situation, it proves just how much stress Trump makes these poor innocent people feel. When she says,”I feel like I’m going to die”, this clarifies how much it affects them because it gets to the point where they feel like they want to die since he’s taking their children away. This shouldn’t happen at all, people shouldn’t have to go through a feeling where they feel “powerless” or “wanting to die”. Everyone deserves to be with their kids, and shouldn’t have to be worried where they are or if everything is alright. This is not how we treat humans. Moreover, in a KQED article, the California report interviewed a woman named Ivet who had lost her child at the border and was sent to a detention center, while she was there she was having a really hard time, she reports,”I suffered so much I couldn’t sleep, I had nightmares, and sometimes I trembled”(California Report). Once again this emphasizes how parents feel when they don’t have their children with them; it is clearly a horrible feeling. Some parents don’t even get the chance to know where their children end up, or if they’re doing okay. This proves that family separation brings fear and dehumanization .  

Furthermore, dehumanization is an issue that also needs to be addressed because this is not how a country who praises the “Home of the Brave, Land of the Free” should be treating people. In an image taken by W. Gardner Selby which shows how Trump is dehumanizing people, it’s clearly shows  the distress that family separation causes.

This image is so heartbreaking, kids or anyone shouldn’t have to go through such traumatizing events when all they were looking for was a better life. This isn’t fair, this just shows pure dehumanization, people aren’t animals, they shouldn’t be kept in cages. Maria Sanchez, a Fruitvale resident, explained her feelings on this image. She clarifies,”I don’t think anyone deserves this, it’s sickening, it just shows that the United States doesn’t care about people, only the rich and wealthy”(Sanchez). When Sanchez  says “I don’t think anyone deserves this”, she is 100% correct. This proves how much Trump doesn’t care about humans, but Only the “rich and wealthy” humans because he thinks that those with privilege are people who don’t do anything dangerous. In an article from the Washington Post by Philip Rucker it explains how Trump says if they keep separating families, that others that come will have fear and will think twice and not come, Rucker explains,”Trump said the soaring number of illegal border crossings is “a terrible situation” and argued that family separations likely would help scare away some undocumented migrants from trying to enter the United States.“If they feel there will be separation, they won’t come,” Trump said”(Rucker).  This quote suggests that immigrants will get scared of coming, but truly, they aren’t scared, they will do anything to come here because they know they will get somewhere here. This text also shows dehumanization because Trump is using kids to prevent immigration, since he knows parents weakness is their children and if he takes them away they don’t cross the border.  

Adding on, immigrants aren’t awful people, others just choose to make up their own perspective on them and they dislike them. In an  interview with a student from Life Academy named Jesus Lopez he points out very well that most immigrants aren’t dangerous, he explains,”Immigrants help out the economy in a way that others don’t, whether that’s farming and making food for everyone, or being doctors and helping out the community” (Lopez). This proves that immigrants aren’t awful because they have actually helped out this community. People are just always judging right away. The quote that Jesus explains is important and unique because he explains somethings that immigrants help out.

In conclusion, family separation brings fear, dehumanization and it makes immigrants look like criminals. Trump shouldn’t have the right to be destroying families like this. It’s unfair and it shows what type of President we have.

Work Cited

Brice-Saddler, Michael. “The 7-Year-Old Girl Who Died in Border Patrol Custody Was Healthy before She Arrived, Father Says.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 15 Dec. 2018, www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2018/12/15/year-old-girl-who-died-border-patrol-custody-was-healthy-before-she-arrived-father-says/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.dda0f32c82c0.

Healy, Jack. “Migrant Parents Wait and Hope for Their Children: ‘I Feel Like I’m Going to Die’.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 22 June 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/06/21/us/immigrant-children-separating-families.html.

Lopez, Jesus. “Interview with Jesus Lopez.” 11 Dec. 2018.

In this interview what was discussed was family separation and a few questions were asked. Jesus Lopez is a student at Life Academy

PolitiFact, and Tweets A filmmaker https://twitter.com/joseiswriting/status/1006397160622055429/photo/1. “Does Tweeted Photo Show Boy Caged by Government?” @Politifact, 15 June 2018, www.politifact.com/texas/statements/2018/jun/15/tweets/tweeted-photo-inaccurately-indicates-boy-caged-fed/.

Sanchez, Maria. “Interviewing a Fruitvale Resident .” 11 Dec. 2018.

In this interview I went to Fruitvale BART station in Oakland and interviewed a resident. Her name was Maria Sanchez who has lived here for many years already. What was discussed was the topic about Family Separation and I asked her questions.

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