and reach thousands of daily visitors
Listen to thisDon't deny assistance to refugee children
These immigrant children that have fled to the country this year are seeking protection from threatening home lives and need to have an asylum available within the United States.
During the course of the 2014 fiscal year, more than 66,000 unaccompanied refugee children were apprehended at the United States Southwest border. The statistics from the Department of Homeland Security revealed that during May and June alone more than 20,000 children were detained. In order to prevent over crowding in detention centers, many of the unaccompanied children have been sent to shelters across the country.
Some of the children have also been released to sponsors, family members that are currently residing in the United States. As these large groups of children and youth are crossing over the border, United States citizens must be accepting of these young refugees.
For many decades refugees have come to the United States in order to find freedom. During the mid 1950s America allowed refugees from Eastern European communist countries to enter into the country. In the 1960s thousands of Cuban citizens came to the country in order to escape their oppressive government. Almost 10 years later Indochinese refugees fled to the U.S. after the Fall of Saigon. Even within the 1990s the United States government traveled to Ethiopia in order to visit the "wondering children" of Sudan. Today, in order for someone to be granted refugee status by the United States the individual must have been persecuted or feared they would be persecuted based on their race, religion, or membership in a specific social group. The majority of the children that have fled are from Central America, specifically from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.
The primary question is: why have these children left their homes? For many, their communities are in turmoil due to extreme gang violence. The drug cartels have forced many children to become involved in life threatening criminal activity. These immigrant children are suffering persecution, many being taken advantage of because of their naivety and young age.
Parents, desperate to keep their children safe, are sending them to America so that they may escape the violence, murder and abuse. The United States has served as a haven for many being victimized in their home country and once again we must grant asylum to these children.
As thousands of immigrant children are fleeing their native countries in order to find a better life, they are encountering barriers at the United States borders. Refugee children assume that reaching the United States will assure them safety; instead they encounter immigration court and other legal procedures. Many must stand before a judge without legal representation. With no person to advocate for them, these children risk being forced to return to their home countries, returning to the imminent risk of danger. The reality is that these children are in need of a refuge. With mass numbers of refugee children flooding into the United States over the past months, immediate action must be taken in order to ensure that these vulnerable children are taken care of. These children are not coming to the United States in search of jobs, but they are in need of security.
People must work to bring awareness to the severity of the danger in these Central American countries. Refugee children have been dependent on parents to provide for their every need. Many are entering into the United States with no possessions and no place to call home. They are children that have no means to support themselves; they must be able to rely on someone. The American people should provide fortification for these children if we truly are a country that believes in helping the oppressed.
Jamie Boyd
16 November 2014
http://www.al.com/opinion/index.ssf/2014/11/denying_assistance_to_refugee.html
