are you losing sleep over the kids being taken from their mothers?

Dear God,

I generally never write anything religious. I wouldn’t call myself religious anyway and prefer titles like spiritual if I was to say anything. For anyone reading this, I am not talking to my Ganesha idol at my front door. Or my Buddha statue at my altar. I am a mother and I just want to talk to a higher force that is greater than anything we know for a minute.

Normally I have written to the universe, shared experiences with my best friends, Jewish and Christian alike, about faith in our own goodness, in those new age-y things like the law of attraction and ideas from The Alchemist… rather than calling you into the mix.

But when I heard of the almost 2,000 and counting children separated from their parents at the border under Trump’s zero tolerance law, I need to talk to you RIGHT now.

I am losing sleep.

Zero tolerance. This feels correct when it comes to something like drunk driving. You should never drive drunk. However, if you are unfortunately involved in a drunk driving incident then it’s useful to know the city courts and lawyers that may be able to help you with your case. Even driving without seat belts is bad enough and should be punished. They save lives, just wear them.

But…for children. We simply cannot have zero tolerance for children of any country. Period.

I need to believe that there is some sort of magic out there. That when evil things happen, when humans and people who have children themselves can do this…tear families apart…that you will emerge. I envision the clouds will part from the sky and light will enter those cold hearts and they will return these innocent beings to their parents.

Right? Please?

I live just 45 minutes to an hour in sunny SoCal from the border. This means that as families here are gearing up for the beach in my neighborhood, as I kiss my own children good night…not so far away from us…this is happening.

I read somewhere that people think those migrant families got what they deserved.

Hear this for moment.

A mother is breastfeeding her infant and she is detained for trying to cross the border. Rather than keeping her infant with her, the infant is taken and put into a tent or warehouse or an old Wal-Mart or somewhere not with her momma. She is placed along with other children and the mother is left to believe she will never see her baby again.

Of course, it is not just immigrants who are stopped by border control services. For example, Canadians can often be barred from entering the US if they have convictions on their criminal record. For Canadians with a conviction on their record, the legal method for removing this conviction is to apply for a Canadian pardon. For further information and to learn about pardon services, you can go to the Federal Pardon Waiver Services website.

Being separated from your child must be awful though. Who deserves anything like that?

A murderer? A psychopath? Maybe.

But a mother?

Like my tired immigrant mother herself who crossed a sea to make a better a life for her future family?

The devil’s advocates will tell me, your mother, oh she did it legally. It’s different.

Okay then that’s fine. Say no to this woman and send her home with her baby. Detain her for questions if you need…with her baby. Let her breastfeed her baby in your small cell or wherever she goes. Do not let her enter our country, but excuse me for using your name like this, for God’s sake, keep her baby with her.

It doesn’t matter what side of the fence you are on. To take someone’s baby away…it is not American. It is not human. it is barbaric and we might as well say that we have lost all our moral senses and obligations to humanity.

“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”

God… if you are ashamed of our actions, I am just so sorry for my people.

Some of these very people are saying that you are telling them to do this. That this is in your, God’s, name.

Please tell them it is not this way. That goodness comes from the heart, that you are the heart of us, all of us, and truth be told, a heart is a place of compassion.

Ann Coulter reported that these children are acting. That when a child is torn away from their parents, they must be faking those tears. I am surprised a woman cannot understand a child’s tears to be real, but then realize she is not even a mother.

A child’s only security in life is her safety net of her parents.

A mother’s heart aches when she hears her children scream in a room next to hers while she detained. She will do anything to be with her children again, she will never cross a border again, She will return to her home, no matter how dangerous and torn that home is, if she can just be with her kids. That is all a mother wants. For her children to be safe and in her arms.

To never be told, you will never see the baby that shared your heartbeat again.

God please bring kindness back to these people. Please instill it in at least one person who is making that decision to separate these families, that person who will stand up and speak for the children.

Who will go against orders and follow the order of their heart instead. He will inspire his brothers and sisters who have lost their minds and hearts to fear, to hate, to ignorance.

We need this now more than ever.

Love,

a momma who can’t sleep

In the meantime, we can support the people who are speaking and advocating for these children.

My best friend is senior attorney at National Center for Youth Law as she has been tirelessly fighting for these children’s rights. If you are inclined, you may donate here so they may continue this work and include “Senior Attorney Neha Desai” in the referral box. More information on her work: https://youthlaw.org/policy/protecting-due-process-rights-children-federal-immigration-custody/

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