Lawrence McSwain, in his letter to the Cape Gazette (In defense of our country’s border laws), has set a new standard for civic naivete. He states that in June 2018, “President Trump signed an executive order ...” that ended the practice of the separation of children from their parents at the border. Oh, really? And Mr. McSwain believes that was the end of it?
Members of the biweekly Lewes Silent Vigil protesting this inhumane practice have gone to the border in the past few weeks and witnessed the handcuffing and separation of families. The news coverage may have disappeared from the front pages of our newspapers, but make no mistake, wresting small children from their parents continues. To know the truth of what is happening at the border, we must read more widely and deeply than merely checking headlines.
Mr. McSwain calls these refugees “criminals.” Masses of migrants, refugees and disadvantaged people are on the move all around the globe, escaping tyrants and terrorists, trying to find safety and the promise of a good life for their children. They are not criminals in any sense. Is that how Mr. McSwain will characterize the many climate refugees who are on the move right now and surely will be in the near future as ocean rise affects their homes on the borders of the continents?
To refuse them safety, to turn them away, to treat them as “less than” is not even remotely moral.
To quote Maryland Rep. Elijah Cummings, whose funeral was held in his hometown of Baltimore, “We are better than that.”
Anne Biddle Pratt
Milton
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