[Caption; A series of tweets by josie duffy rice/ @jduffyrice
Now that we’re all on twitter because of this game, I am making a public service announcement: PLEASE STOP SHARING THAT STORY ABOUT 1500 KIDS MISSING. The outrage I’ve seen is the result of a total misinterpretation and could SERIOUSLY threaten the children you want to save.
Before I get to it, I’ll answer the question that 99 million ppl will inevitably ask: I know this because I’m a lawyer, i works on criminal justice issues (sometimes incl immigration), and 4 of my closest friends are immigration attorneys dealing with this EXACT THING.
There are two things going on. 1) HHS doesn’t know where 1500 unaccompanied minors are. 2) we are separating parents and children at the border.
These are different. The kids in 1) were not separated from their parents at the border. They crossed the border alone* or arrived here without a parent.
That’s not really the point I want to make, though it is important.
These kids were dealt with by ORR, the office of refugee resettlement. They were released into the care of people that almost always fit within one of these three categories:
1) immediate family 2) extended family 3) other people that the child has a pre-existing relationship with. If none of these categories apply, then the kids normally stay in a shelter.
(After a number of children were trafficked in 2014, these restrictions got tighter.)
So those kids are released and then they are no longer ORRs responsibility or problem. THIS IS A GOOD THING.
One analogy I heard from my dear friend who I won’t tag without her permission, is that ORR is basically a jailer. Do you want the jail keeping track of where every former inmate is?
Now I have more to say about that but before we do that, let’s talk about the word missing. Basically by all accounts HHS did a cursory reach out to check on these kids, and couldn’t find out where they were exactly.
When I say cursory I mean cursory. We’re talking about phone calls. Phone calls! Like, no door knocks. No checking school records. They called. They didn’t find answers.
There are so many reasons why people wouldn’t answer. Maybe these kids are living with someone undocumented. Maybe they aren’t but their sponsor is (legitimately) completely scared of immigration authorities in trumps America.
They aren’t missing! They are almost certainly living with family members who almost certainly don’t want to interact with the government and WE SHOULDN’T ASK THEM TO
ORR’s job is NOT to track and monitor these kids, and it shouldn’t be. As my friend said, if there were an issue- abuse, or other wrongdoing- it should go through the appropriate agency: children’s services or what have you. It SHOULDN’T GO THROUGH HHS/ORR or DHS/ICE
When your school loans provider can’t reach you, are you missing? No. When your boss can’t find you on a Friday night, are you missing? No. They aren’t missing. Some unanswered phone calls does not a missing child make.
Now, I started out identifying two things that were happening. The second- the separation of children and their parents at the border- is goddamn unconscionable and sickening.
But DO NOT confuse the two. The potential for it backfiring is real. What we’re demanding is that ORR, which works hand in hand with ICE, “keep better track” of kids they basically would like to deport if giving the chance. We don’t want that!!!
You’re asking immigration authorities IN TRUMP’S AMERICA to BETTER MONITOR UNDOCUMENTED CHILDREN AND THEIR FAMILIES. You don’t want this. I promise you don’t.
I get it. It sounds awful. But at WORST it’s benign. At best, it’s a GOOD thing that ORR doesn’t know where these kids are. There’s a reason. We actually now have pretty strict requirements before we release these kids. They aren’t all being trafficked. They aren’t dead.
It doesn’t mean life is easy, but life won’t be easier if ORR starts tracking them. Trust me. And trust my brilliant friends who know about this shit and have warned me and are now warning you. DONT conflate the two things.
AND because some people are obviously taking this as an opportunity to exonerate the president- NO. Trumps immigration policy is disgusting. His separation of kids and parents at the border is SICKENING. He’s a tyrant. Just don’t conflate them.
Man oh man I forget that at least 50 percent of people on twitter refuse to learn basic reading comprehension. Tonight should be fun!
] *[Also it says “alien” up there where it should say “alone”, cool, autocorrect.]
*corrected autocorrect/typo in my transcription for the sake of being less confusing, especially for anyone listening to the text rather than reading it visually.
Since I reblogged a post about this issue, here is a correction.
I’m not sure what’s true anymore, but here is someone else’s take on it
it’s worth taking a look at the links i added to the original post – the “missing” kids are completely unrelated to the kids that ICE has been separating from their families, and that’s very clear if you actually read the articles and shit about the situation.
Not a call out just letting you know that there are sources and ish. 🙂
I saw the thread in Twitter originally and I’m glad someone brought it over here. It was good to read and understand. I feel like there’s definitely some media manipulation going on that might end up feeding MORE power to ICE, which is the last thing we want.
To be honest.. if more children were shown from birth that they are loved, cared for, and listened no matter their gender we might not have some of the problems we have now.
Listen. That’s all well and good, but one is very able to show their children love, without giving them crutches to get to sleep. As an on-call nanny who has worked with hundreds of children over the years, the ones who have the hardest time getting to sleep are the ones whose parents have given them said crutches. It’s an absolute nightmare for the children, for the parents, and for any caregiver. The children can’t just fall asleep, they have to made to fall asleep. And if it doesn’t happen properly, then the child is very unhappy and doesn’t get enough rest. Giving your child the agency to go to sleep on their own isn’t an unkind thing. In fact, it is very kind. And that does not mean that one is unable to show them love when they need it.
At the root of it that is not really what this post is about.
I’m sure that that aspect of the post isn’t why you love it, but that is the root of the original post. The post is saying that “while people condemn the idea of children being allowed to sleep in their parents beds, it can be a beautiful thing”. It’s mentioned in the first couple of sentences.
To be honest.. if more children were shown from birth that they are loved, cared for, and listened no matter their gender we might not have some of the problems we have now.
Parents: Rey, Finn General: An Angel, A sweetheart.
I’m imagining her never experiencing starvation (from either food or love), and feeling wonderfully happy! I bet Rey would want to make sure she experiences lots of green places!
It’s perfectly fine to engage in respectful debate with reylos. It’s not fine to harass them, but they harass us all the time and I don’t think either of us are gonna stop anytime soon, so idrk about that. But preying on a thirteen-year-old girl for shipping it? That’s fucked up.
She’s thirteen. Thirteen year old girls are immature. And that’s not a criticism. It’s fine. It’s completely normal development-wise. My point is, this girl can’t handle harassment like an older, more experienced user could. I’m sure most of you, both reylos and antis, feel hurt when you get harassed, even if you won’t admit it. Imagine it from her perspective. I’m sure she’s found out by now, and she must be incredibly hurt/humiliated.
I know I’ve been harsh and blunt with reylos, but I’m not the type that harasses and targets specific users, and I frown upon anon hate mail. I hate when antis do that. I hate when reylos do it too. It’s bad when you do it to anyone, but to a child? A child who presumably doesn’t think too in-depth about these things, and wants to simply enjoy something that she ships? Leave her alone.
Antis can certainly protest against reylos, and as much as I hate to admit it, reylos can protest against antis. But specific targeting and harassment of minors needs to end. I’m barely older than this girl, so I can imagine it from her perspective all too easily. Everything is so real and vivid at that age. This is the kind of thing that would make any thirteen y. o. cry herself to sleep. Just stop for a moment and think about that.
And to top it all off, this was unprovoked. This girl had done nothing but type her interests on her blog page, and some antis felt the need to publicly call her out on it. That makes you seem like a complete and utter prick, because, well, you are a prick.
If you do want to call out reylos or antis (again, not something I condone at all), please, for the love of god, don’t target vulnerable minors who’ve done nothing wrong.
As much as the reylo tags terrify me (back when I first got tumblr, I ventured in there and was basically told to kill myself for naively crosstagging, but I digress), I feel obligated to show the reylos that not all of us condone this behavior, contrary to what many of them seem to believe. It needs to end.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: If your so-called social justice activism consists of targeting and harassing people who have been staying in their lane, then you’re just an asshole and a bully. That goes a hundredfold if you’re targeting a child. I’m as wigged out by gross Reylo arguments and racism as anyone and will always push back. But harassing someone, much less a child, over simply enjoying a ship? GTFO.
L.J.'s Obsessions 