President Barack Obama,
I write to express my grave concern over your lack of action
on behalf of thousands of unaccompanied migrant children now held in custody
(or "being sheltered", depending on who is describing their
situation) near the US-Mexico border and on military bases around the United
States. I also write to oppose mass deportations of children back to Central
America.
Mr. President. Your perceived disinterest in tackling this
issue is terrible and tragic.
Apart from requesting money to deal with what you called a
humanitarian crisis, your demeanor, insofar as it can be judged by brief quotes
and video clips is that of a president who simply cannot be bothered to deal
with a major, international problem involving children.
You seem apathetic and perplexed. You look like a man who has wandered into the wrong job, and maybe that's the case.
Understand that when I voted for you I expected a measure of
empathy that was completely absent during the previous administration.
But when you refuse to visit the border region, I think of
George W. Bush's "flyover" after Hurricane Katrina, looking down from
the heavens as people died on live television at the Superdome.
When I see photographs of children huddled on the concrete
floors of immigration holding facilities and locked in cages, I think of the
internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II and the terrible images
that emerged from Guantanamo after the ill-advised round-up of alleged
terrorist warlords.
In your pre-emptive defense of coming executive actions last
week you mentioned, somewhat snarkly, that you are not up for re-election - a sign, perhaps, that
you sense that there will be no judgment for your failure to act on behalf of
these detained children (beyond asking for money, and signing off on fast-track deportations).
But I suspect you came into office with at least a few goals. True, some of those have been quashed by Republicans, who truth be told,
were going to block anything you proposed anyway. But you will have to live
with your failure to show compassion on this issue. You, and unfortunately,
these children, who are refugees, victims, and, literally, the future of our
hemisphere.
I ask you, what is
to become of children deported to the terribly violent nation of Honduras? What
is to become of siblings separated by adult immigration
agents, whose training is not in child care, or trauma counseling, but in
tracking, trapping and jailing undocumented immigrants in a desert that kills
countless thousands?
You can repeat to yourself, and to the nation, that it's not
your fault, that this is what happens when Republicans refuse to vote on
immigration reform. But as you know, the buck stops with you. I urge you to rally your allies (Rick Perry is not one of them) and do something
sensible to get families out of cages, off military bases, and into the hands
of people who are trained to work with children.
Sincerely,
John Sevigny