Those outraged should also look inward

immigration

Those outraged should

be looking inward, too

The recent spate of heart-rending pictures of forlorn children suffering in government group living facilities is enough to break the heart of any human being capable of having emotions. I have researched the issue and the statistics are staggering.

I have heard numbers bandied about ranging up to 50,000 children at a time that have been torn from their parents to satisfy some bureaucratic regulation that labels the parents as law breakers. Sometimes, the children are detained simply because the parents allowed them to fend for themselves or were placed in the care of unreliable strangers for a short amount of time.

The children are interviewed by complete strangers and taken to austere facilities where they are held, away from familiar faces, until their parents’ legal status is resolved. Sometimes, these children reach legal age without seeing their parents again and are subjected to the whims of the judicial system for their long term fate.

The latest U.S Health & Human Services statistics that I could find show that on Sept. 30, 2016 there were not 50,000 children separated from their parents but actually 437,465 (down from 510,000 in 2006) living in such demoralizing environments.

Yes, people should be outraged. However, they should not be outraged at the Border Patrol. They should be outraged at themselves for creating such a decadent society within their own borders that necessitates the placing of that many of our OWN children in foster care.

HERB WEINS

Sandpoint