Over the last week, anger has grown at the “zero tolerance” policy of the US government towards migrants at its borders. Actions were held across the country calling to end family separation as reports of children being taken away from their parents and being housed in cages and tent cities are released.
The National Alliance for Filipino Concerns (NAFCON) stands in solidarity with migrant families at the border who are being forcibly being separated by the US government. We join the growing movement calling to end family separation and family detention.
We join the outcry against the Trump administration’s worsening attacks on immigrants.
We echo the demand that all children detained by immigration officials be reunited with their parents. We also support the call to close facilities and government departments that serve no purpose but to criminalize immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers and violate their human rights.
More and more disturbing allegations are coming out about the treatment of children within this detention system, such as being prohibited from touching their families during visits and not being told where their other detained family members are located. We hear news stories of children being drugged against their will to pacify them, children and parents being flown to separate detention centers thousands of miles away, and parents not being able to get their kids back for months after their own release.
We cannot be silent while children suffer like this. We cannot be silent while entire families suffer like this.
We recognize the needs of 6,000 Filipinos that are forced to leave their families in the Philippines everyday and the needs of migrant families crossing the US border, are similar — to survive. Whether it be escaping poverty, unemployment, or violence — we are all merely looking for better living conditions for ourselves and loved ones.
Separation of parents from their children shouldn’t be the price of survival.
We equally denounce Trump’s last-ditch effort to quell growing protests by ordering the detention of families together. Detention of immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers is not the answer. Trump’s scapegoating of immigrants and labeling us as criminal will not address the forced migration of people seeking dignified and peaceful living conditions outside their home countries.
NAFCON will continue to mobilize in the streets to call for an end to this unjust system of family separation and detention. We call on fellow Filipinos to participate in actions across the US on June 30 and voice our deep solidarity with all migrants who have been forcibly separated from their loved ones and those unjustly detained or imprisoned.
