How The Trump Stole Christmas

The chilly holiday season is a special time for warm and lighthearted family gatherings, but for Agustín Gómez Pérez, Christmas Eve brought only pain and grief when his 8-year old son, Felipe Gómez Alonzo, died from influenza while in the custody of US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in El Paso, Texas. Felipe is the second migrant child in custody to die in December, an outrageous death toll whose existence brings about many concerns and much disapproval regarding President Trump’s inadequate immigration system. Prior to December, no child had died in CBP’s custody in more than a decade. So what transpired was certainly not solely the product of misfortune, but rather, a direct consequence of the President’s broken immigration policies such as his controversial 90-day asylum ban that started in early November. A couple of days after this tragic loss, Trump took his usual route of handling criticism and scathingly tweeted about how “any deaths of children” are the Democrats’ fault because building the Wall would “undoubtedly” fix all immigration issues. However, it really just seems like a lack of human empathy rather than a physical barrier that led to the deaths of two innocent children.[su_pullquote align=”right”]Felipe is the second migrant child in custody to die in December, an outrageous death toll whose existence brings about many concerns and much disapproval regarding President Trump’s inadequate immigration system.[/su_pullquote]

Migrant children fleeing from their home country have witnessed unspeakable horrors, have lived in the constant fear and stress of poverty, and are the victims of a cruel fate that no child should ever have to be burdened with. The least the United States can do is provide these children a sanctuary of basic human rights and treat them with care and kindness after their harrowing experiences. Clearly, CBP has been unable to provide these basic necessities. Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen M. Nielson states that aid has been slow due to “a dramatic increase at the border of families and unaccompanied children crossing our border illegally” and this surge has pushed the system to “a breaking point.” Felipe was transferred between four crowded facilities at the border from when he was first detained on December 18th until his death, accentuating just how dire the situation is in detention centers along the border. However, Secretary Nielson’s explanations do not provide a valid excuse for an incompetent healthcare system. According to the Migrant Policy Institute, the increase in migrant children has been rapid and consistent since the early 2010s, suggesting that CBP should have remained vigilant and taken diligent action to ensure an adequate supply of medical supplies, equipment, and resources to meet a growing need. In the wake of these two deaths, Nielson has stated that the CBP will be enacting significant changes such as more thorough medical screenings, more medical personnel, and general improvements in medical programs and procedures. These protective measures are certainly helpful, but a crucial question remains unanswered: why did these two deaths occur in the first place?[su_pullquote]Migrant children fleeing from their home country have witnessed unspeakable horrors, have lived in the constant fear and stress of poverty, and are the victims of a cruel fate that no child should ever have to be burdened with.[/su_pullquote]

Preliminary investigations show that both of the migrant children who died this past December were perfectly healthy before the grueling journey north, but both succumbed to infections after being detained. From a medical perspective, infections can be lethal, especially to young children, if left untreated. However, with proper care and treatment, infections are simple to combat. It is difficult to say what precisely went wrong while these children were detained, but it is easy to say this: as Trump continues to throttle the immigration system while neglecting detainment centers to the point of cruelty, there will be more tragedies in the future. The Trump administration has restricted the legal pathway to safety in this country through a process called “metering,” which places limits on the number of asylum-seekers allowed into the US each day through an official entry point. For example, some entry points can process about 100 migrants each day, but under the metering policy, much fewer migrants are processed. The wait times for asylum-seekers can easily extend up to several months, with migrants living in dismal conditions and sleeping on sheets of cardboard with little to no basic resources. Rather than being “treated like animals,” many migrants choose to take dangerous routes and cross in hazardous remote areas, risking their lives in doing so.

[su_pullquote align=”right”]As a country that was largely built upon the shoulders and backs of immigrants, we should be treating weary migrants with compassion rather than a $5 billion wall.[/su_pullquote]Felipe and his father risked their lives because they realized just how dire their situation was: either risk their lives by the hands of other human beings or risk their lives by the hand of nature. They still chose the latter. People constantly criticize the growing number of illegal immigrants, but instead of pointing fingers at impoverished men, women, and children who are trying to escape legitimately dangerous countries in Central America, we should be focusing our attention on how Trump continues to dehumanize the immigration system. As a country that was largely built upon the shoulders and backs of immigrants, we should be treating weary migrants with compassion rather than a $5 billion wall.

Caron Song ‘19 studies in the School of Engineering & Applied Science. He/She/They can be reached at songcaron@wustl.edu.