Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” (Matthew 19:14)
At this moment, hundreds of children are being held in ICE detention centers. Since the beginning of the second Trump administration, there has been a 600% increase in child detention: families are being held for weeks or months, being denied necessary medical care, and being given dirty water and food rife with worms and mold. We are told that the administration’s cruel immigration actions are justified in the name of enforcing the law and “securing our borders”. Yet, these children and babies are innocent, regardless of their immigration status or that of their parents.
If this is legal, then the law is immoral. And when the law is immoral, it must be changed.
If we listen to Jesus, if we believe that these are His children, deserving of the kingdom of Heaven, how do we then justify ICE lurking outside Minneapolis schools to snatch parents and kids? How do we accept the abduction by federal forces of 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos as he came home from preschool, wearing a blue bunny-ear hat and a Spider Man backpack? Is it “law and order” that this little boy is now “feverish, vomiting, and barely responsive” in a detention center in Texas?
No, law is not morality. For the people on the wrong end of colonization and empire, it never has been. Child removal is a tactic of colonization, the most successful tactic of genocide used against Indigenous peoples on this continent and beyond.
Even as the Administration replaces the head of ICE and claims a “draw down” on ICE and CBP operations in Minnesota, we can’t delude ourselves that this is a shift away from their goal of deporting as many people as possible. Though they claim they are merely arresting “illegal” immigrants and violent criminals, they are actively taking away legal status to justify peoples’ capture and removal. In just a few days, they will end temporary protected status for about 350,000 Haitians legally in the US. In April, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in a case challenging the Trump Administration’s effort to end birthright citizenship using a law that denied citizenship to Native Americans until 1924. They have made no move to stop child detention or deportation—rather, they have vastly increased the numbers of immigrants without legal status, including children.
The courageous organizing in Minneapolis and across the country has laid bare the evil in the law, while actively protecting families with fierce love and generosity. We must not let up. It is only the beginning of all the work we have yet to do to build a world that protects our children and that honors that we are all created in God’s image.
- Local to MN: Contact Gov Walz and demand an eviction moratorium now.
- Join us in prayer: pray in your daily practice, together in community, and save the date for next Sunday (Feb 8th) at 2PM Pacific Time for an online prayer gathering hosted by the Coalition to Dismantle (Zoom registration coming soon)