Border separations impact USC Aiken students

Over the summer, some shocking news rocked the country.

The Trump Administration began a ruthless process of separating families. Children who weren’t even old enough to understand what was happening were taken away from their families and put into cold steel cages as if they were in a human zoo. 

Kids were put on trials as if they were criminals instead of people who had been trying to make life better for themselves. Many in the country were shocked and disgusted by these actions.

For instance, an unsettling video from Now This showed a three-year-old screaming and running away from their mother after being separated for so long. The mother sat on the floor in tears, begging for her child to recognize her and asking the guards, “What’s wrong with him? It’s me. Why doesn’t he recognize me?”

Several students on campus have strong opinions on this matter, including some students who work with Diversity Initiatives on campus: Amethyst Marroquin and Olivia Burley.

Marroquin grew up twenty-five minutes from the border, and she said, “My first thoughts were how so much had changed. Under the Obama administration, normally families sent their kids to the border because they knew that kids would not be turned away. But, now kids are being turned away after going through dangerous situations.” 

She also mentioned that several families paid ‘coyotes’ or hired help that brings kids to the border. “No mother would bring their kids across dangerous situations if they did not think the place the child was going was safer than their home,” she added.

I wholeheartedly agree with her. For a parent to risk a this with their child, we should ask what they are running from. Amethyst also said, “Some of the nicest people I met were not born in this country.”

Burley’s feelings are similar. She said, “I was disappointed and, honestly, heartbroken. These poor children are being separated from their parents and being thrown into foster care, which has its own separate issues, all because their parents do not have official documentation to be legally in this country.”

I agree with both Marroquin and Burley. Families belong together. What has come out of separating these families other than heartbreak, trauma and tears? Keep families together. Period.