Dear editor:
Here's a hypothetical story from which I wish to make a point.
Jane Doe, is a 28-year-old white American who has been living in let's say Fresno, Calif., all her life. She has a husband who physically abuses her and her children. So, she decides to leave him and emigrate to Hot Springs, Ark. She grabs her 8- and 6-year-old son and daughter and suddenly leaves her husband. Having no money or anyone to help her, she decides to walk the 1,800 miles. She drags her children through Death Valley at 110 degrees and other southern states with temperatures above 100 degrees. Each day, she doesn't know where or how she will find food or water for the three of them. During the trip, having no safe place to sleep, she is assaulted and abused. Fortunately, her children are not harmed.
Eventually, she arrives with her children and at night breaks into Magic Springs amusement park to hide. For a day, she feeds herself and her children from food left in trash barrels, but when not enough, she also breaks into a food stand. She's doing the best she can for herself and her children. The next day, she and her children are discovered and she is arrested for trespassing and theft. She is brought to the Garland County Detention Center and has to stay there until her hearing because she can't make bail.
With her arrest, the Department of Human Services (DHS) is immediately called in to care for her children. The children are, of course, separated from their mother because their mom is in jail and children can't stay in an adult jail. They are placed in a safe temporary home with air conditioning, showers, food, water and beds and caring adults. The children cry because they are separated from their mom and are afraid.
But then, appropriately, DHS starts asking further questions. Despite loving her children, is the mom a good mother and after her release, should the children be returned to her. Is she a safe mother? Didn't she seriously put her children's lives in danger during the 1,800-mile march? What about eating out of trash containers or showing her children it is permissible to break into a food stand if you're hungry?
This analogy, although imperfect, is similar to the circumstances of illegal immigrants who now cross our border with their children.
A month ago, I doubt that anyone reading this story in The Sentinel-Record would have thought it inappropriate for the children to be taken away from their mother based upon her actions, which endangered the lives of her children. No one would have thought the children were treated inappropriately by DHS when placed in a secure, safe environment. One would have been more concerned that these children would be permanently, emotionally scarred due to the 1,800-mile dangerous journey, than from the temporary separation from their mom. The children's separation wouldn't have bothered anyone then. Why the overreaction now?
Jack Sternberg, MD
Hot Springs
Editorial on 07/12/2018