Open Post: Hot Or Not – Children Separated From Parents And Put In Kennels At Border

Got them from @CBP.

The first photos since zero tolerance was announced inside the largest Border Patrol processing station in US — McAllen’s Ursula.

This is where we toured today.

They say it’s where more kids are separated from their parents than anywhere else in the US. pic.twitter.com/yMsAo1vMKd

— Jacob Soboroff (@jacobsoboroff) June 17, 2018

Everyone and their abuela is talking about how under President Trump's zero-tolerance policy, children of asylum-seekers are being separated from their parents at border detention centers, and at the largest one in the country - the Customs and Border Protection facility in McAllen, TX - the separated children are being housed in cages. Well actually, "cages" has become the triggering word of the week, because while liberals are calling the chain-link enclosures seen in the newly-released images "cages," conservates are calling them "definitely not cages." Technically I consider "cages" to have a top and bottom component allowing them to be fully enclosed, so I think we should put aside our differences and agree on "kennels." Whatever the case, these children - 2,000 of which have already been detained in the past six weeks - have bright futures.

If the zero-tolerance immigration policy had been adopted in America 700 years, we wouldn't have this present-day problem, but as it stands, the separating of children from their parents who illegally brought them to the border is causing an uproar from both sides of the political spectrum. The tough practice is intended to dissuade families from experiencing the glitz and glamour and school shootings of the US, with Attorney General Jeff Sessions stating in May:

If you don’t want your child separated, then don’t bring them across the border illegally. The laws are the laws. A big name of the game is deterrence.

Old school conservative Laura Bush wrote an open letter in The Washington Post wondering if humanity or compassion could potentially enter the equation for the Trump White House's stance on detainment center practices. The pictures depicting children in kennels at the McAllen center are having a similar effect that Farm Security Administration (FSA) coverage of the Dust Bowl and Southern poverty in the wake of the Great Depression had in the 1930's. Published in Life Magazine, these unsettling analog viral images united Americans in demanding a better future for their brethren. But can the same be achieved in 2018? When the depicted children in need are of a different nationality? Is now a time to demonstrate our humanity through leniency and mercy, or is it time to flex our border muscles for the sake of national security? What should our legacy be? What would Jesus do? What would you do? Let us know in the comments.

Here's the video released by @CBP which shows adults and children being held in cages at the immigration processing center in McAllen, Texas. pic.twitter.com/AuR2d6aw8D

— Tasneem N (@TasneemN) June 18, 2018

Photo Credit: Getty Images