Put aside concerns about immigration and our fear about the changing nation in which we live. On the most basic level, the children from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras are running in panic and fear. Imagine a child being chased by a rapist. The child runs down the street and wraps her arms around your legs saying, "Please help me. He is after me!" Would we ever push the child away? Would we force the child to return to the rapist?
Some might say this is over dramatic or an over simplification. I believe it distills the situation down to its basic components.
I worked and supervised investigators in the Juvenile Sex Crimes Unit of one of our nation's largest cities. Mandatory training and working with my counterparts in the Adult Sex Crimes Unit taught many truths about victims of sexual assaults. Studies agree that almost half of sexual assault victims do not report their rape. Think about that: almost 50% of sexual assault victims cannot bring themselves to file a report. Now, let's think about a child that may have even been raped by the police or army. Think about the child that their little sister will be raped and killed if they every make a police report. Think about this child being in an interview room with a uniformed Border Patrol Agent who asks why they fled to America.
The cartels and the gangs that serve the cartels use children. Let me be specific. We will call him Juan Pedro and cannot use his real name. Neither can he. At the age of 11 he was told that he was now a member of the Z. He knew of the zetas and knew that he could not say no. A few weeks later he was at the bridge and told to watch for a particular truck. He watched the license plates and saw the truck. He called the phone number that he had been given and reported that the truck arrived in Mexico and was not searched. He had other duties and he did what he was told. Eventually he was picked up by adult members of the cartel and told that today he would prove his loyalty. Failure to prove his loyalty would result in the death of his baby sister. He was given a pistol and ordered to kill his best friend, who was 10 years old. Juan Pedro is now hooding from the Zeta in a shelter, under an assumed name.
We will call the little girl Maria. She was raped at the age of 10 and forded into a house of prostitution. She escaped eight months later and now lives in a shelter under an assumed name.
Neither of these children are our responsibility. The hundreds or thousands of children in similar circumstances are not our responsibility. But if Juan Pedro or Maria ran across our border and into our arms would we really return them to the cartels? Really?
I don't pretend to know the solutions to the complex issues surrounding illegal and legal immigration. But I can't pretend that I don't have any moral responsibilities to many of these children and their families. I know that I remain accountable to God for whatever and I say, whatever I do, whatever I don't say or don't do.
