A double standard is occurring and no on seems to care.  People and press are screaming at the top of their lungs because of a zero tolerance for illegal aliens coming into this country, United States.  Because the adults are treated as criminals the children are being taken from the parents.  People….this is not new.  A person in a domestic abuse situation will sometimes stay there because their partner threatens them with calling child protective services if they try to leave.  Or a single parent loses their job, they are afraid to seek help because the first move by the state is to call in child protective services and take the children.  My friend was 7th day Adventist and believed in a vegetarian diet when it wasn’t popular.  Her neighbor called child protective services and my friend had to battle to keep her kids.  Children are taken from homes on a daily basis for a variety of good and bad reasons, now people are objecting for one small group.  State of Arizona is short of foster homes so they housed children in their downtown offices.  No cots and minimal supervision.  How is this any different than what is happening to those entering the country illegally with children?  On the other end of the spectrum, every day people take their children to day care.  New born care is hard to find.  Maternity leave is over and parents are scrambling to find a place for their infant because they need to go back to work or lose their job.  In these situations people see no problem with the broken hearted tears of a toddler as parents go to work every day. Children are being taken or dropped off in child care EVERYDAY.  Am I the only one that is seeing the double standard here?

I do not agree with the current policy.  I also do not believe that any zero tolerance activity ends well.  I also do not believe it is right that laws are enforced or not enforced inconsistently with children that are not coming into this country illegally but have troubled or in trouble parents.  We need to find our humanity and look at all of these situations on a case by case basis.  This is close to my heart because as a teenager I had a Navajo Foster brother that lived with us while he went to high school.  We did not take him from his home…the government did.  We gave him the choice of living in a home instead of a boarding school.  Yes, the government took children off the reservation if they didn’t live close enough to a school in the 1970’s.  This was not their choice, the government made this decision.  I felt it was wrong then.  I had my own brush with child protective service when my wandering toddler took off and went to the park.  They held my son at the park and decided I was an unfit mother when I didn’t answer the phone.  I didn’t answer the phone because I was out looking for my toddler son, terrified he had gone down to the small stream behind our house.  When we were finally united, I was an emotional wreck and the local authority called protective services.  Fortunately, my case worker was a kind lady that let me sob out my fears and frustrations and never came back.  She decided I loved my kids and this would probably be a one off.  I wish.  That same son wandered off repeatedly until he got stuck in a sticker patch.  After that I would hide his shoes and he wouldn’t leave the house without his shoes.  The bottom line is taking children from parents is not uncommon.  It is not uncommon for parents to put children in childcare themselves.  In either situation part of the transition is laced with child’s tears that is voicing their very real objection to the situation.  The tears of a child whose parents have to go to work are no less legitimate than the tears of a child whose parents are being treated as a criminal.  A double standard is happening and I believe we are being manipulated by people that have agendas with nothing to do with the children.

By all means, write your Representatives and Senators.  Get laws changed to be more equitable. Find better ways to help children in crisis.  Help each other care for children.  There are children all around us that need support, encouragement, and a safe place to live.  Search your heart and help where you can.  However, stop believing that what is happening is new or unusual.

Keep in mind one dark and disturbing piece of information, “relatives” will bring children into this and other countries illegally and sell the child as part of the human trafficking.  Sometimes the best thing that can happen to a child is to be taken from “relatives” that do NOT have the best interest of the child at heart.  Just because they are related does not mean they are loved.  Reality sucks and sometimes “well meaning” people can make situations much much worse for children.