| If, like me, you’ve been following YouTube educator and advocate Ms. Rachel on social media, you’re feeling both enraged and hopeful as March wraps up. Let me explain.
The past few weeks have brought countless reports of state-sanctioned abuse of children in ICE custody. One of the children, 5-year-old Gael, is nonverbal and has “significant developmental delays and other medical challenges,” according to NBC News, which has been following his family’s case. Gael’s parents migrated to the US from Colombia and were receiving care for their son, including a specialized diet to manage constipation, in El Paso before they were taken into custody at a routine immigration check-in appointment in early March, despite having pending asylum claims and no criminal history. Ms. Rachel spoke to the family over Zoom, where she learned that Gael had not had a bowel movement in 9 days. She told her five million Instagram followers on March 14, “This little guy needs us,” as his family explained in an interview from the facility that “No child should be here, regardless of their condition.” Ten days later, NBC News reported that the family was finally released from the Dilley Immigration Processing Center.
We know public pressure works, and it’s been an important lever to pull as we witness a breakdown of the three branches of government under Trump. It’s also never been clearer why we need reproductive justice and the ability to parent our children in safe and sustainable communities, free of traumatizing immigration policies and detainment.
So we can celebrate the family’s release and the fact that the population at Dilley has dropped from more than 900 at a recent peak to some 100 in the past week, according to ProPublica, which published an investigation featuring interviews with the children there in early February. But it won’t be enough until Dilley closes (again)—for good.
But back to the rage: Reading can be a salve in these times. Might I suggest stocking up, or requesting from your local library, the books included in this excellent reproductive rights reading list at Literary Hub for Women’s History Month? Compiled by veteran journalist Clara Bingham, the author of The Movement: How Women’s Liberation Transformed America 1963-1973, the list includes some recent Repro Nation faves (including my book!). We’ve got to keep reading, while we still can.
In solidarity,
Regina Mahone
Senior Editor, The Nation
Coauthor, Liberating Abortion |
