Source: mprnews.org |
Last week,
hundreds of thousands of people came together in protest marches across over
700 US cities in a reaction to the recent surface images and recordings of
children suffering separations from their families and being kept in cages.
These images
taken from detention centres and holding facilities across the American borders
and immigration centres circulated global media, causing international outrage
and disbelief.
The US
Governments response to these rightful criticisms?
Simply
deflect any responsibility and present these children as threats to the state.
Admittedly
the US Government have acknowledged the issue and have released their own
photos and recordings from a children’s detention centres, but only in efforts
to push their own narrative. Their footage clearly kept teenage boys at the
foregrounding, hiding girls and young boys, suggesting that the administration
would never detain such children.
Yet images
released earlier show that this demographic within detention centres that the
Trump Administration is so insistent upon is not a reality. Hundreds of
immigrant children have been separated from their families regardless of
whether they are girls or boys, or even if they are toddlers.
Though the
Administration has made efforts to redeem themselves in some way, by choosing
to only show children of a certain age or gender, they have split children into
two different categories: kids deserving of sympathy, and kids who are not so
deserving – because, in fact, the Government does not see them as kids at all.
Teenage boys are being stripped of their youth and childhood and propelled into
the identity of a “grown up”. From this they are then likened to “men”,
“immigrant men” who pose as nothing but a threat to the state. By doing all of
this the Trump Administration are working desperately in order to push a
different narrative and motivation, and, in turn, justify their cruel decision
to separate and then detain children.
This is not
the only issue. On top of picking and choosing who deserves the identity of a
“child”, the US Government seem to want to decide whether this is a human rights
issue or an issue regarding the security of the nation.
By pushing
the idea of threatening teenage boys, the Government have insisted on a sole
motivation of protecting America, offering no protection and therefore no
maintenance toward the keeping of human rights for these children. These concepts
that the government creates regarding individuals like these, will eventually
go on to materialise into social attitudes, where American citizens are fearful
or hostile towards immigrants. Attitudes like these spark racist viewpoints and
prejudice. Separating children into those deserving of protection and those who
are not creates a mentality amongst society where people will begin to pick and
choose who deserves which privileges and rights based on their age, gender and
background, and occasion after occasion it is those teenage boys who are deemed
to be capable “men” and therefore discriminated against.
Now, as
hundreds more continue to march, protest and campaign against social and legal
atrocities such as this, it is important to remember that we are fighting for
all children suffering separation and detainment, regardless of age and gender,
and then for all adults, no matter what their racial or religious backgrounds.
Human rights activists consider all as deserving of the right to seek asylum
and safety in a respectful and just manner, something the Trump Administration
should perhaps evaluate once more.
Thanks for reading!
Aman
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