How Regular Americans Can Help Reunite Migrant Families
We should stay outraged until all children are back with their parents and family separation is abolished
In recent days, heartbreaking news reports and photographs have brought to light the fact that the United States government hasn’t stopped separating immigrant families at the border, despite a year-old executive order.
It feels like a sick sort of déjà vu. At this time last year, like many other Americans, I watched in horror as details of family separation emerged: Children in cages, audio recordings of detained children sobbing, begging to call their relatives, as government officials laughed.
I found myself unable to separate the crisis from my own life, the way we tend to with most horrifying news. Otherwise pleasant parenting tasks became painful reminders. Every time my son cried, I thought of the babies whose mothers weren’t there to comfort them.
I wanted to help in some meaningful way, but was unsure how. Then a friend sent me a Facebook post written by Julie Schwietert Collazo, a mother of three in Queens. She was crowdfunding to raise bond for a mother from Guatemala named Yeni González. Ms. Schwietert Collazo and others organized a caravan of volunteers to drive Ms. González from Arizona…
