“When Will We Stop Detaining Our Children?” — Published in Big Muddy Journal 2021

When Will We Stop Detaining Our Children?

I get out my car in the particular stillness of a 6:00 a.m. morning. It looks like night time still, but I know it’s another day. I adjust my laptop bag over my shoulder, and pick up my pace. The American flag stands idle in the middle of the parking lot. In my head, I go over what I am about to teach in the classroom within the building of a unique program where children are detained because of their illegal entry to the U.S. It is a dangerous trek on their own, each unaccompanied, each with a different strand of hope. They are asleep in their dormitories as I enter the facility. Class starts in an hour, after they are given breakfast. I plan for the day with the rest of the teachers, gather new ideas and vice versa. We plan for the storm, and sometimes it feels like how people are before a hurricane. We are running for copies. We are molding the lesson plan to suit a new change, which student has been changed to another class because of PPR, or Poor Peer Relations, and verifying which student has left from the facility. Some leave in weeks after their arrival, months, but no more than a year. 

We teach during a storm. Thunder of constant blasts of radios verifying head counts of classes. They announce also the time to go to Physical Education outside in fenced fields, the time go to the cafeteria, and constant information of flow of students. Then, like winds with potential to shake the class, come in the Case Managers,  Clinicians, or individuals from the medical department, to pick up a child who is expecting an appointment or a call. Lightning sparks if we suddenly are confronted with a child who has had bad news about their case, or a child who finally reaches frustration from being detained, or simply a child who fails to follow instruction. Thankfully we face this storm not alone, but with other staff who are in the class to help out called YouthCare workers. Together we all manage to dance during the storm, continue instruction until our time is done for the day. That is what we do. We are a small light during this storm. There, if all they see are the winds, lightning, hear the thunder. They follow the light of learning, if they wish to learn among it all, to forget their worries through education.

We give tools for them that they will use outside, whether that be in the U.S or in their home country. Regardless if they are deported or reunited with family in the U.S, I am confident to say they have learned.

I began to work in Southwest key in September 2018., when Juan Sanchez, founder and chief executive of Southwest Key, announced his resignation after multiple accusations of financial improprieties in 2019, (“Top Officials Resign From Southwest Key, Shelter Provider for Migrant Children”), and after its shelter in Arizona permanently closed down because of child abuse from an employee.

Being a teacher in Southwest key did not just consist of being in the classroom. A teacher there is expected to help all departments, on top of the teaching duties. This was especially so, during the time of the Trump administration’s handling of the immigration issues that have existed even during Obama's presidency and now still under President Biden. What was astonishing about 2019 is that the eternal issue of immigration policy became grossly intensified under the zero-tolerance policy to the point that many children were lost, completely lost after they were separated from their families (“Federal Agencies Lost Track of Nearly 1,500 Migrant Children Placed With Sponsors”). We now know that the zero-tolerance policy was used by the Trump administration as a fear tactic in hopes to deter further immigration traffic, but even during that time there was a surge of it with the growing gang violence in central American countries propelling everybody out to the U.S.

            Under the new policies the immigration system grew, and its dependence on them as well because it meant more people being detained, even for simply seeking asylum. In both the immigration detention facilities and child immigrant shelters like Southwest Key, the capacity was being filled to its utmost capacity (“Inside Casa Padre, the converted Walmart where the U.S. is holding nearly 1,500 immigrant children”). The adults go to the ICE controlled immigration facilities, and the children below eighteen are sent to various shelters like the one I work at. In the shelter it is required for the child to have education, and other basic needs met. With the separation of immigrant families as they crossed the border, and even already living in the U.S., 2018 and 2019 saw the all-time rise of these programs.

Now we are in the year 2021, and still not much has changed. There is, of course, a new ingredient under this pandemic mayhem hat has been added to this chaotic world of teaching in these programs; virtual learning. These programs do not stop. The plight of immigrant children pursuing a better tomorrow does not stop. Children continue to be received to the programs only to automatically be placed under a 14-day quarantine in their dorms, until tests for Covid-19 come out negative. Fortunately, as of recent, seven months after the pandemic began, we have finally obtained tablets to teach the quarantined while also teaching those who have been cleared of those 14 days. The desks in the classrooms are now maintained within six feet of distance among each other, and everybody in the program now uses a face mask. While I look at my class in person, I see the other children through the cameras in the tablets, pursuing that light of education even if it is through the small screen. They grasp to the hopes of learning English, to create a positive out of a negative.

            The program has adapted, and fortunately met the needs under the pandemic. As I put on PPE gear to help the other departments supervising the wings of quarantined dorms where the children will eat, learn, and sleep all in one room, I ask myself when will the detainment of immigrant children ever come to halt if not even the pandemic could do so? The pandemic only brought another layer of detainment, of isolation. We try our best to not make it feel like a detention facility for children, but we must come into terms with the truth. Not only us on the inside, but the people reading this on the outside. I ask then, what else can we do to not have the children of our world detained, to not have our children detained any longer? Is there a solution to all of this? I have hope that a solution is in sight. Just like a vaccine was created to faze this pandemic, I hope something can come out collectively to fix this system. Until then, we fill these spots of employment to help these children the best we can. We keep these spots of employment, so it rather be us, than somebody who does not care. We care.

Citations

Kulish, N., Barker, K., & Ruiz, R. (2019, March 11). Top officials resign from SOUTHWEST Key, shelter provider for migrant children. Retrieved May 13, 2021, from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/11/us/southwest-key-migrant-shelters-resignations.html

Michael E. Miller, E. (2018, June 27). Inside Casa padre, the Converted Walmart where the U.S. is holding nearly 1,500 immigrant children. Retrieved May 13, 2021, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/inside-casa-padre-the-converted-walmart-where-the-us-is-holding-nearly-1500-immigrant-children/2018/06/14/0cd65ce4-6eba-11e8-bd50-b80389a4e569_story.html

Nixon, R. (2018, April 26). Federal agencies lost track of nearly 1,500 migrant children placed with sponsors. Retrieved May 13, 2021, from https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/26/us/politics/migrant-children-missing.html