Identity Crisis

It is easy for people to dismiss things that don’t personally affect them. The notion “out of sight, out of mind” rings true if one looks at what the United States government is doing by putting illegal immigrants in detention centers. Our government assumes that putting immigrants in cells like prisoners is the right way to go about solving the problem of immigration, but instead it is causing a divide among Americans.

Foremost, it is important to talk about how we got to this current situation. There are Americans who are pro-detention centers and those who are not, but the fact of the matter is everyone who is born in America is actually an immigrant themselves. Baffling to many educated citizens is the amount of ignorance that comes from people who believe that they are “true” Americans.

What is that even supposed to mean? It is absurd because such a thing does not exist. In plain and simple language: this land is not your land. You came and took it from its native owners (whom you massacred) as if it were your own from the start. America is dealing with an identity crisis and this is very apparent when you see the unrest caused by questions about race and immigration.

The abundance of immigrants being detained in detention centers is now a growing problem, with America’s identity crisis lying at the heart of the issue. The word detain is key here, because upon closer inspection it appears to be the exact opposite. These immigrants are being treated as if crossing a border of a country is a capital crime. The vast majority of these people did not commit any murders, rapes, or other violent crimes, yet they are being treated as such. Even someone only mildly politically aware has heard the nightmare stories coming out of these detention centers.

Both adults and children are being held at these centers for days, weeks, and on some severe occasions even months. There even was a report from the Homeland Security inspector, which stated that “900 people [were] crammed into a space designed to accommodate 125 at most.”

While in those cells some detainees have no access to soap, dental products, or a place where they can shower. There have been reports of children sleeping on concrete floors and cases where adult detainees were forced to stand for long periods of time due to a lack of space.

The horror stories don’t stop there. Frankly, the way that some of these people are being treated is just wrong, and borderline criminal. One minor child stated that an officer “groped her during a pat down in front of other migrants and officers.” How can we accuse these people of committing a criminal act by their very presence, while Americans commit crimes against them?

Children don’t get any special privileges either. There are reports stating that babies have been left unsupervised and there aren’t enough clothes, diapers, etc for them. As if that wasn’t enough, some babies are being housed in cold temperatures. One pediatrician who treated many children in facilities, stated that there have been outbreaks of disease among children kept in close quarters.

It would be easy to continue on about how terrible these detention centers are and how awfully these people are being treated. But, the truth is, a detention center has a place in our society. Those in power just need to treat the individuals housed in these places like human beings, instead of like criminals who have committed heinous crimes. The problem was never about the should detention centers exist or not. It was about the conditions. Why are people being treated like criminals? It’s because detention centers were built like prisons.

Of course, not all immigrants are innocent and though there are some whom have committed crimes but that is no justifiable reason to treat all immigrants like is if they were. The moment America ends its identity crisis and accepts that everyone who is living in this country was once an immigrant, then there will be real change. But this can only happen if all Americans begin to put themselves in an immigrant’s shoes.

The only way people will care, act, and rally behind a cause is when it is personal to them. America, it’s time to get personal.