It's Time to Defend the Most Defenseless

At the very bottom of all the politics and controversy, there is nothing to consider but this:

A dad hugging his daughter at the border.

There are over 2,500 children separated from their parents. For the first time in their lives, they are finding themselves alone in a strange country, with a lot of other kids they don't know, and everywhere they turn, they don't see their moms and dads anywhere, and the only thing that can make things right would be to run into mommy and daddy's arms for safety and protection. A lot of these kids were forcibly taken from their parents. One was a four-month-old girl while she was breastfeeding. There are many toddlers in custody. Children that can't communicate. They just don't know what is going on. They may never know who their real parents are, or that they were fiercely loved so much, they gave up everything so they could grow up safely. And...THEY ARE HUMANS. Just like us. They love their family and friends, they want what is best for them. They have feelings. All they want is safety for their families. Recently a woman who had been separated from her kids for two months was asked what she would tell others, she said she would tell them to go to a different country. THAT AMERICA HAS NO HEART.

And she's right. If this is how we treat people who come here for asylum because of corrupt governments and murderous gangs, then sanctity for life has no place here.

We have lived with immigration problems for decades. These days they are mainly coming from the northern triangle of Central America. People fleeing extreme violence with high murder rates and governments unwilling to do anything For the year 2017,

A schoolgirl looks away while passing a man 
who was assassinated by a gang in El Salvador

Honduras had 42.8 murders per 100,000, Guatemala has 26.1, El Salvador is at 60. Most migrants come from those three, known as the "Northern Triangle." I'll close out the Central American countries

Costa Rica - 12.1, Panama - 10.2, Nicaragua - 7, and Belize - 40.0. Finally, I'll include Mexico, since we share a border with them and they tie in closely with migrants - 42.8 murders per 100,000. 

Separating families wasn't based on a substantial increase in people crossing the United States - Mexico border. Border crossings have been significantly down. And before his new Zero Tolerance policy, Trump actually had maintained the same plan that was

Migrant family waiting in line.

Obama's. That is, "Catch and Release." The number of people who were caught, processed, and released with a court date in the United States under Trump before Zero Tolerance took effect in early May is around 100,000. If the percentage that showed up for their court hearings went down, it might be because Trump terminated the "Alternatives to Detention" programs that Obama established. Using bonds, electronic monitoring and community management, they achieved 94.9%

Tornillo Tent City

appearance rates between the four programs. One program for families cost $50.00 a night per family. For the government to detain them, it costs $800 or more a family per night. The tent camp in Tornillo for kids costs $778 for each kid per night. 

If the southwest border is so dangerous, then why didn't the Administration start sooner?[1] The delay wasn't about crossing the

Crossing the border fence.

"t's" and dotting the "i's". Or making sure that the various agencies involved were fully briefed and prepared to separate families and get them back together. It's obvious they didn't plan for the policy or any contingencies.

The reason why it wasn't immediately implemented is that they knew that the border isn't dangerous. Last year, 180 out of 187,000

"La Bestia" Migrants on top of a freight train 
car in Mexico.

were arrested for being criminals, including gang members  (1%). Only .01% were arrested while fraudulently posing as a family unit crossing the border or as an unaccompanied minor. Most of the people crossing the border are families fleeing the Central American countries of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras because of widespread violence. People

Children are increasingly the victims
in the Northern Triangle.

just don't put themselves and their children in as much danger that they face for economical reasons. They don't leave their family, friends, and everything they have ever known on a whim. They feel that their lives and that of their children are in extreme danger. How we treat them says a lot about who we are as a country. 

I want to make one thing perfectly clear. Donald J Trump and nobody but Donald J Trump and two members of his crack team, Jeff Sessions and Steven Miller, are responsible for children being separated from their families. There is and never has been a law

A migrant climbing the fence where there are 
memorial crosses for migrants who have 
died on the journey.

that the Democrats were responsible for that caused this to happen. It began[1] in April when Attorney General Jeff Sessions made an announcement that ALL who crossed the border, whether they applied for asylum or not were to be criminally prosecuted and that if there were children, they would be separated. It has changed from being a civil matter under Obama to a criminal one under Trump. While Trump is busy separating low-risk families seeking asylum, his immigration officers are more likely to miss high-risk criminals reentering the country. Obama's policy was to focus on the high-risk criminals and allow the low-risk families to enter Alternatives for Detention programs until they get their hearing.

The absolute most disgusting thing about this...it didn't need to happen. Unless Trump thought that if the policy was put in place, it would force the Democrats to sign off on his border wall...and let him off the hook for DACA, too, of course. Unfortunately, Trump

Children kept in fences.

can't understand human behavior enough to realize that throwing young children in cages is wrong The only purpose is to use them as pawns in a game to make Democrats look bad. Lack of humanity and racism combined caused him to think that they didn't mean anything because these were illegal immigrants from Central America and Mexico. The eight Central America countries and Mexico account for 43% of undocumented immigration. Where are the other illegal immigrants? Why aren't they being apprehended?

While processing, undocumented immigrants have to have their fingerprints taken, mug shots, and all kinds of things done. I'm sure

A pregnant migrant being processed by ICE.

it is all very technologically sophisticated. Tracking people can be challenging as they move through US-CIS, CBP, DHS, DOJ, ICE, ORR, HHS etc. So, why then, was processing families handled so abysmally?


Why were the giant powerhouse bureaucracies like Department of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Patrol, Department of

Caught at the border.

Justice, U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services, Health and Human Services, Office of Refugee Resettlement, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement manage to be so unprepared? How can no one not figure out that they needed to have a multi-department system that keeps parents and children connected electronically at all times? To me, it's simple. It was planned haphazardly and gave the agencies that would be involved not enough time to prepare.[1] Tent camps were quickly built because they were running out of space. Soon, there will be

A group of refugees are also caught

more tent cities located on military bases as they start detaining asylee families together.[2] Last I heard, 2,053 children have not been reunified with their families. Many of their parents have probably been deported back to their home countries. Technically, the kids are under the custody of ORR which works with agencies to place them in foster care with the younger children a priority. At this time, the agencies involved won't put them up for adoption and courts usually won't without termination of parental rights. Right now, with no plans for these children, including reunification, it's hard to tell what will happen. In the meantime, parents are trying to get their children back, if they can, contacting the caseworkers, the alphabet soup government agencies or their own government. 

Migrant tent city in Tijuana, Mexico

Parents were sent home to violent and impoverished countries, many living in shacks with no electricity, running water, or phone if they still have a home. Some live in villages that speak a dialect of Mayan, not Spanish. Getting in contact with caseworkers and children is next to impossible for them. To me, the absolute worst thing that could happen would be for the kids to go through deportation without family in their home countries to take them in and no plans for them on the other side.

RIGHT NOW, children are going before courts to have their own immigration cases heard. Including toddlers and infants, and they

Tent city for small children in detention.

are responsible for defending themselves. The 9th Circuit handed a decision down that children aren't entitled to a court-appointed lawyer that can get them through a complicated process. Thankfully, there are a lot of pro bono lawyers down there representing as many kids as they can. Reports have children that are showing up in just diapers. There is no accountability for how these children are being treated. The government isn't even letting the Red Cross into shelters where the youngest are. The transparency is nonexistent. The taxpayers are paying for these shelters. We should demand to see them. If they're only sending them to court in diapers, there's something wrong. I think clothing should at least be the most basic of needs in government-run facilities.

Picture the description of a three-year-old child, during a court hearing where she was supposed to be representing herself, climbing up on the table as her pro bono attorney looks on demonstrates the sheer absurdity and the sheer horror of it all. And the heartbreak. 

"American parents are also separated from their families when arrested" as justification for our behavior...

This just makes me angry. You cannot compare a citizen who knowingly broke the law, and CHOSE to do it despite the fact that they are a parent. Or, even worse, a custodial parent. If they get arrested, they have the option of placing their kids in the custody of family or friends. If they don't have anyone, the child will go into

Some people shouldn't be near their children. 
These two are a good example. They were arrested
 for keeping their 13 children chained, among other abuses.

foster care under Child Protective Services. Any issue of custody, a lawyer will be assigned by the court to look out for the best interests of the child. If they lose their parental rights, then it's their fault. They committed the crime and failed to do the most minimal actions to make sure they retained legal custody. Moms in the U.S. are also not prosecuted for a misdemeanor in criminal court. In the very rare instance that a parent is detained with their kids, they are taken with the parent to the station and are in their care except for a little while. If the parent doesn't want the children at the station, they can call someone to come to pick the kids up and most officers are more than accommodating. 

The undocumented and undesired.

Undocumented immigrant parents left their homes to try and seek a better life for their kids. They knew the danger but decided that

Gang violence in Central America increasingly
 is putting younger children in danger.

they could either stay in their country and be killed or they can fight for their survival and their children's and try for asylum. The journey is treacherous, and a lot of migrants die. Isn't it better to die trying to live than live in constant fear of death or seeing their kids murdered? 

Federal regulation states that people in fear of persecution have the right to apply for asylum. International law makes it clear that the U.S. government cannot refuse a person from applying for asylum

At the U.S. border in Tijuana.

who has a legitimate humanitarian crisis. Custom and Border Patrol (CBP) is trying like hell to prevent people from being able to apply. First, there are agents right on the border. If they can keep migrants on the Mexican side and they don't tell them they can't apply, they can keep them from applying but it's a thin line. Migrants pushed back often have no money and no place to sleep. And ports of entries are usually violent on the Mexico side, and 

A line of border patrol guards preventing entry.

non-Mexican migrants are usually the target. Tijuana has the world's 5th worst murder rate at over 100 per 100,000 people. Twenty miles away in San Diego, the murder rate is 3.6. People that survived the trip will die yards from the U.S. border because we ILLEGALLY denied them asylum. Their blood is on our hands.  

Those "fortunate" to cross at a Port of Entry, will be interviewed by someone who determines if their claims are credible. If the officer decides it's not credible, deportation proceedings begin. The migrant can then ask for it to be heard before a judge. The judge is just making a decision on the credibility, not the case of asylum. At this time, the migrant is arrested and detained until ICE can come

A family being apprehended.

to get them for detention, and depending on the judge's ruling, begin deportation proceedings. At this time, they are separated from their children. DHS can hold them for 72 hours, where they are transferred over to HHS/ORR. At this time the child is declared an "unaccompanied minor" (meaning that they didn't come over with their parents) and their cases are separated from that of their parents. Adults are in the criminal system for most likely "illegal entry", a misdemeanor and the child to government custody or to live with sponsors.

Since we have laws in place to prevent children from being victims of smugglers, gangs, etc., their cases go through the system much

slower than their parents. If the parents are ordered deported, they will be deported without their kids. Once they are sent back home, the chances of getting them back aren't very good. Oftentimes, the parents who applied for asylum are taken to court where there is a lot of confusion and mass hearings. Many parents

Mass hearing of undocumented immigrants

who have no legal representative to guide them correctly plead "guilty" and are then given their Order of Deportation. If there is a lawyer, one will represent a group shackled together for mass hearings and will advise the group to plead guilty. They mistakenly believe that they will be reunited with their family before they are deported.

Then there's the third way to cross the border, "illegally", between ports. Most families turn themselves into border patrol and then the

The remains of migrants who died in the 
desert at their final resting place.

procedure up above repeats itself. They have one year to apply for asylum after crossing the border. Again, this is stated in federal and international law. This is a very dangerous way to cross, which people elect because they aren't allowing people to apply for asylum in the "legal" way. There have been 7,000 deaths in the desert since 1998. The chance of crossing the American desert is 0% without smugglers, according to Border Patrol Agent David Hernandez. They are told which direction to go and the town that the smugglers will meet them at. These towns can be over EIGHTY MILES at some points...on foot. There's violence. Cartels need to be paid to cross the border, kidnapping or

Border patrol providing first aid to a distressed migrant

are murdered. The sun in the summer can be over 110 degrees and nights in the winter are at 32 or lower at night. Several volunteer groups leave gallons of water and food in several places where migrants would be likely to go. They will also go out and look for bodies when they hear migrants mention finding one or more. Another border patrol agent spoke of coming upon a family in the desert. The mother was holding onto her infant, which had passed away probably two days before. She wouldn't let go because she couldn't accept that he was dead. The environment in that area is so harsh that there could be many thousands more that have died. Still mourned by those who loved them.

Parental rights in the United States of America.

When an American custodial parent is incarcerated, they may lose physical custody, but they can still retain legal custody, as long as

An incarcerated mother is allowed to
feed and bond with her newborn.

the crime does not involve violence against their family. They have a right to choose a safe place for their children to live. If the custodial parent should happen to have an order of protection, the jailed parent can have their lawyer ask the criminal judge to file a limited order of protection so they can see their kid.  

If there is an inmate momma or daddy that can't find a temporary custodian, the child could go into foster care. That would be the time when parental rights might be challenged. Unless their parental rights are taken away, the parent has a lot of rights: they

A family visiting on Father's Day.

have the right to visitation (if it's safe for the child), phone calls, and other forms of contact,  the right to know why their child was placed in foster care, the right to have a lawyer represent them in family court, right to know their child's caseworker and to contact that caseworker, to ask for help to take the steps to reunify for the parent and child, to participate in planning of the child's future, provide input in child's permanency plan and to have that plan mailed to them.

For parents that get investigated for abuse or neglect, Child Protection Services prioritizes keeping children with their parents.

CPS can provide or refer services for the parent that includes parenting classes, school, job assistance, housing assistance, daycare, food, safety courses, mental health support, rehab and I'm sure more. The goal is to keep the child in the home because even a bad parent is better than pulling a child from home and in foster care.

When they need to pull a child, they either get a court order first or, in case of emergency, pull the child before and then get the court order as soon as possible. The burden of proving guilt is on the

agency. At trial, all states but Mississippi will provide the parent with a lawyer and the trial is in less than a month unless there is a good reason for the case to be continued.

Reunification is a goal for as many children and parents possible because the same studies used to explain what might be happening to separated migrant children are the same reason for why Child Protection insists on it whenever possible - to a fault.

Suffer the little children.

The condition is known as "toxic stress" and it causes physical, emotional, psychological and behavioral problems throughout their

Floor mats, Mylar blankets inside a cage
in a converted Walmart Supercenter.

lives. It is caused by prolonged and excessive activation of physiologic response systems in the absence of some kind of buffering protection such as a loving and stable parent. 




This kind of stress can flood the body with inflammatory hormones like cortisol and adrenaline Basically, children go into a "flight, fight, or freeze" mode. Hormones surge into the body and brain and actually causes the brain's architecture to physically change. The flight, fight or freeze mode is a basal

Reunited after two months, the trauma suffered by that
little girl is very clear.

instinct in all animals meant for only a short period of time - just long enough to get out of danger, around 45 seconds. The body can't handle that much stress for a prolonged period of time. The hormones will start to kill dendrites in each brain cell - a short branched extension of a nerve cell along which nerve impulses are communicated to the cell. Neurons are also killed off, causing damage both psychologically and with the physical structure of the brain.     

Until a certain age, the only comfort they can know is through nonverbal contact, soothing sounds, and having their needs met. Being separated breaks the relationship that helps children deal with other trauma. A nurturing, affectionate parent releases

Family waiting on Mexican side of Brownsville to get
 into the United States doing ordinary things like 
fixing hair and coloring.

oxytocin, a hormone that inhibits stress responses and calms a child. In the situation at the border, even if caretakers were allowed to physically comfort, the high amount of hormones involved will not decrease. Children that seem "okay", are probably not and are in "freeze" mode - the one where the body realizes that fight or flight isn't going to save them and they lose all hope. Let me restate that. The freeze mode is when the body gives up all hope. 

So what does this do to the children? A lot. And it affects their entire lives. The sympathetic branch of the nervous system activates the flight or fight mode. When one feels threatened (either real or perceived), the heart beats faster, the muscles tense up, the

A mother released is on her way to New York
 to claim her kids. While they are awaiting background 
checks, she will only be allowed to see them during the day.

eyes dilate, and the mucous membranes dry up. We can now see better, run faster, fight harder, and breath easier than without the response. "Flight, fight, or freeze" can activate in 1/20th a second - faster than two heartbeats. 

The parasympathetic branch is what causes you to yawn, Stretching your muscles and feeling them relax after a workout is also an example, and helps us sleep. It also activates the "freeze" mode. When triggered, a huge amount of neurotransmitters, hormones,

and painkillers is dumped into our blood. The same ones that allow us to sleep. The painkillers keep us still when we are being attacked. Blood pressure drops and the person faints without disrupting the blood flow to the brain. The "freeze" response occurs when someone is terrified, or when experiencing traumatic events like being raped or held at gunpoint. Or separated traumatically from parents and placed in overcrowded situations with caretakers that can't even touch them. After the trauma has passed, that person may not have any memory, except for flashbacks or memory fragments that will haunt them for the rest of their lives.

Short term, they will feel panic. They may cry constantly or throw temper tantrums. After a while, the child appears to calm down, but

their hormones are working overtime. They may not eat or sleep and remain uncommunicative. A kid may do activities like watch TV, draw pictures, etc. but that doesn't mean that he isn't suffering or that her body's not still in a full panic mode. It doesn't mean that they are feeling any hope of getting out of detention, seeing their parents, or ever feel safe again. They are in strange environments where they can't feel safe.

Long-term is, well, long. Effects of toxic stress can cause increases in the risks for autoimmune disease, coronary heart disease, stroke, heart attack, diabetes, cancer, mental illness, suicide and suicide attempts, frequent headaches, alcoholism, illicit drug use, holes in memory, act of violence, or a victim of violence, increase in unintentional pregnancy and teen pregnancy, promiscuity (in search

Traumatized.

of finding someone to love them), taking risks, quiet and withdrawn, delinquency, indifference toward another's feelings, separation anxiety, distrust of all adults, PTSD, poor work performance, absenteeism, or inability to keep a job, poor school performance, poor impulse control, and mental illness. They also will not live as long as those who don't have it. This is just a portion of what can happen. 

The medical profession has come out in full force against this. Dr. Coleen Kraft, President, American Academy of Pediatrics was allowed to tour a child detention center in Combes, TX. She

Dr. Coleen Kraft

observed such things as a toddler sobbing as a worker was trying to hand her toys or a book. Very shaken, she spoke to CNN: "This is something that was inflicted on this child by the government, and really is nothing less than government-sanctioned abuse." A petition signed by 13,013 mental health professionals, 229 organizations, and 8,229 from the general population for a total of 21,471 also strongly came out against what is happening. Here is just a small portion of the Stop Border Separation of Children from Parents! petition said: "The National Child Traumatic Stress Network, funded in part by the Department of Health and Human Services, notes that children may develop

post-traumatic responses following separation from their parents and specifically lists immigration and parental deportation as situations of potentially traumatic separation. To pretend that separated children do not grow up with the shrapnel of this traumatic experience embedded in their minds is to disregard everything we know about child development, the brain, and trauma." 

This isn't a comparison between what happens when an American child is separated from their American parents. This is about the government-sanctioned separation of families without any regard for their health, well-being, or their future, for absolutely no reason. It is about us doing this to families who left their countries in

Migrant children in a understaffed facility in New York City

desperation and in fear of their lives, to go on a journey fraught with just as much danger as the country they left only to be victimized by the country they looked to with hope for their children. Instead, we abused their children. Deprived them of things they need to live and to grow healthy.

Don't get me wrong, I don't want any kid to suffer. And toxic stress occurs in this country. It occurs in Europe. I don't deny that incarcerated parents can lead to toxic stress in their kids. Obviously,

An undocumented mother is placed in federal 
detention for crossing the border and applying 
for asylum. Her kids were taken from 
her and she doesn't know where they are.

they do.  However, they don't lose contact with their parents because the parents are in jail. The parents probably have a network of family and friends to take their kids if the other parent wasn't available that would allow children to feel safe. We also don't separate American families for misdemeanors like traffic citations. Which is what illegal entry into the U.S. is - a misdemeanor. 

The presence of a child's mother and father are a constant comfort where children feel love and safety. At least until they are traumatically separated from them, where they find themselves without that comfort, safety, and love. They don't know what

happened, but I can imagine what they're thinking. Mom left me. Mom doesn't love me anymore. Am I ever going to see her again? Why did she leave me? I want my mom. I want to be hugged. I want someone to love me again. What did I do that made her leave me? (Feel free to substitute "dad" instead of "mom.")

I'm not going to sit here and claim that what is happening is "unamerican." I'm just simply not that naive about our past. The 
United States has a long history of underestimating or ignoring

We've been separating families for years.
 When are we going to learn how to ashamed?

huge humanitarian crises and mistreating our own people. Just to name a few off of the top of my head: Slavery, Native Americans, a ship full of Jewish refugee children..and every other European Jew who tried to escape Hitler with their lives, Japanese Internment Camps. Millions have been killed because of our "entitlement." And the bloodshed will continue.

I'm not naive enough to wonder about our humanity. Logically, in my head, I know the evil that perpetuates this world. My heart hurts - a lot. The research I've done for this blog has ripped it open and many tears were shed. Yes, there's evil and life isn't supposed to be

Central Americans waiting outside of the border 
cross from Tijuana are often let to 
stay in lines through the night in a
crime-ridden area.

easy, but my God, how? HOW? How can anyone treat other humans like that? Who is okay with border patrol turning people away to their deaths? Or walking 80 miles in an inhospitable region of the country without supplies? And after all that, their children are separated from them. The government knew what it would do to those precious, innocent souls. You don't have to know about toxic stress to know the enormity of taking a child away from their mother. To know that it has hit some of the older ones enough that there have been suicide attempts. These children have reported verbal, physical, and sexual

A group is caught. More times than not, they 
don't have a choice but to enter through the desert.
 The first thing they do is turn themselves 
in for asylum.

abuse at the hands of federal employees at federal detention centers. It blows my mind that a majority of over 2,000 kids will grow up with serious problems. HHS helped fund a study that looked at the effects of stress and what caused it. They are involved in perpetuating the very stressors that the study warned against. They. Know.

Has anyone thought about the parents? Human beings instinctually are fiercely protective of their children. They suffer from the separations too. What's worse is they are doing everything they can

Arnovis Guidos Portillo was deported back to Corral de Mulas,
El Salvador while his 6-year-old daughter Meybelin is still in the
States. Here he is talking to her for the first time.

think of to get their children back, and yet they are even deported without them. A man has already committed suicide after being separated a day in a detention center. How many parents deported to countries where it's almost impossible to call their children, if they know where they are, or talk to the caseworkers, governments. They're living in dangerous situations, in poverty. Do they even have a place to live after they left their country? Can they maintain hope? Will they be able to survive?

God help them, please.

[1]From July 2017 to October 2017, the Trump Administration had a pilot program for Zero Tolerance in the El Paso, TX sector. Between October 2016 and January 2018, 1,768 children were separated. It is unclear how many were detained after  Inauguration. Since DHS refused to release information on family separation in regards to Obama's last four months of his presidency and from March 2018 and April in 2018. If 2,342 were separated during May and June That would mean we have possibly 4,110 kids in detention centers around the country. 

[2]Trump has since issued an executive order to stop separating families and now will be detaining the whole family together. They have been ordered by a judge to reunite children five and under in 14 days and the in 30 days. As of July 4th, nothing has been done, and they have, in fact, made it harder for parents to claim their children: requiring documents that were taken away during processing or having to apply for them and asked if they were Christian. Trump will be putting u against the Flores Settlement until their cases are resolved. Flores puts a limit on how long both children and family units can only remain in detention for 21 days. Border crossings are sill being blockaded.

Gallery

(Other photos that I had chosen for this blog that I thought were powerful)

Reunified, this little girl is still traumatized from the ordeal.

A young boy looks hopeless as his father is being apprehended.

Each cross represents a life lost borne of desperation.

Young boy crying in a tent city near a border crossing in Mexico.

A mother reunified with her son. Again, the boy looks lost and traumatized.

Another tearful reunion.

Border patrol discovered this. They almost made it. It doesn't matter that there's
a wall, people will find a way. It will just take longer.

Another picture of the border.

Body of a migrant in Texas.

Another migrant succumbs to the harshness of the desert. 

An uncaring person has slashed a gallon of water left to save the lives of migrants
crossing through the desert.

White crosses to honor those whose journey ended.

A volunteer group installed a camera at their water drops to find out who was
destroying their water jugs. They caught BORDER PATROL.

The place where Josseline Jamileth Hernandez Quinteros died. 14-years-old,
she was crossing the border with her younger brother to reunite with her mother.
When she got sick, the coyote and the group she was with left her behind, taking
her brother with them at her insistence.

A volunteer group, "No More Deaths" found Josseline's body during a water drop.
Here they attend her funeral mass. Her family couldn't come because it was
too dangerous for them.

Father Bob Carney led mass for Josseline. Something
he does all too regularly.

With Josseline's marker made by "No More Deaths", the plaque
features a poem from her mom. It says: "When you feel that the road
has turned hard and difficult. Don't give yourself up as lost. Continue
forward and seek God's help."
"Te llevaremos siempe en el corazon."
"We'll carry you always in our hearts." 

People camp on the bridge that leads to the U.S. because they have no other
place to go.

Cemetery for migrants found that couldn't be identified.

Memorial in the desert, with personal objects of the dead.

Another picture of the cemetery for migrants.

The border.

Tijuana, Mexico on the left, San Ysidro, CA

It won't stop migrants, but this portion of the border keeps vehicles out.

The little girl, released, came over with her father, who was still in detention, and
separated. Her mother and baby brother were already in the country.

Migrants often walk almost a hundred miles through the most barren, harsh terrain.
They have 0% of surviving without the smugglers.

A drawing from a Central American child depicting violence. I wouldn't
my child living in an area that resembles this either.

A memorial also serves as a water drop as well.

"No Olvidados"  Not Forgotten

Memorial along the border wall for those that have lost their lives.

Tijuana

So many deaths...

Unfortunately, they were too late for this woman. 

Investigator Gene Hernandez shows the skull of one of 135 unidentified immigrants
at Pima County Medical Examiner's Office in Tuscon, Arizona.

Waiting to reunite with her children.

A mother and her daughter caught by border patrol.

Family being apprehended.

Armando Lucas Correa, U.S. citizen, Cuban exile, and father. He had to explain to his
8-year-old daughter why the police wouldn't come and separate them.

This picture captured the country's attention. She only cried when her mother set
her down and stopped when she was picked up. Thankfully, she was not
separated from her mother. However, she has become the image of every
other child that was separated.

I think this speaks for itself.

Another apprehension. 

Tonilla, Texas - a children's detention center, one of the many where kids separated from their
parents are taken.

One of the caravans sleeping outside the border crossing to the U.S.

AND FINALLY, something we can all hope for, PEACE! Where people are people, not a color,
race, or religion.

A place where Nocas, Sonora, Mexico and Nocas, AZ can use the border fence to play
volleyball!!