Simon Cox Blog: Lending Our Voice to Family— It’s More Important than Government

Monday 11 June 2018

Lending Our Voice to Family— It’s More Important than Government

Undocumented immigrants need to still be treated in line with the values of our country.

If you started your summer vacation early, chances are you missed the story about the 1,500 missing migrant children. Over the past few weeks, countless news agencies led with headlines accusing the U.S. government of losing 1,500 immigrant children. People all over the country were predictably incensed. In the midst of all this, the true facts have gotten somewhat lost.

Part of the confusion surrounds a photo of children locked in what appears to be cages. However the reality of this picture is that it is from something that happened back in 2014 and was mistakenly attributed to the current administration’s policies.

Setting the record straight

So, what really happened to the 1,500 children?

In many cases, children have come across the border alone – without their parents – and were subsequently placed with relatives or someone who had a connection with the family. Often, these families did not inform the government where they were located after receiving the children (perhaps for fear of being deported).

These 1,500 children were not ripped from their parents and they are not “missing” in some dangerous situation. Some scenarios in the past involving immigrant children have encountered despicable practices like trafficking, so phrases like “missing children” immediately bring up concern and outrage that is misplaced and uninformed with the truth.

It does not help us solve the issues in front of us to get outraged based off of false or mis-information.

There are real issues

At the same time, believers need to be sure that they don’t let the false report about missing children keep us from being concerned about the actual reality of forced family separation. The true cost in popular ...