An Open Letter to President-elect Biden’s Team Supporting Ending Immigrants’ Torture
Tags: Illumination Curated, Children, Human Rights, Immigration, Diversity

Immigration | United States

An Open Letter to President-elect Biden’s Team Supporting Ending Immigrants’ Torture

As adults, we remember what it was like as children, to wait for a parent who’s been delayed or gone, and, as parents, we understand the fear for a child who is missing or in danger Penofgold Follow Dec 21, 2020 · 3 min read

Gabriela’s Plight, by Liz Pawlak. Used with permission of artist

Dear President-elect Joe Biden, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, Dr. Jill Biden, and Mr. Douglas Emhoff,

Congratulations on the Electoral vote confirming your leadership Mr. President-elect Biden and Madam Vice-President-elect Harris and your families! Your words through TV and video bring comfort and optimism.

We are so relieved to see that your team has a piority to move forward with the complex but blessed task of changing the immigration system and that you care deeply about the families. You bless the country with hope and unity with your plans to help immigrants; your aims were described in the videos “Immigration: Here’s the Deal With Joe Biden”, and the NBC News interview “Joe Biden Outlines Immigration Plan For First 100 Days”.

Madam Vice-President-elect Harris, I was heartened by the news that you met with mothers despairing over the separation from their children at the Otay Mesa Immigration and Detention Facility in San Diego. I appreciate your frankness in general, and in calling the center a prison, and your discernment that the treatment inside the prison was “a crime against humanity”.

I know Dr. Jill Biden that you braved walking through mud and saw the unhospitable conditions of the people living in the tent city at the Matamoros refugee camp in dangerous Tamaulipas, Mexico. With this knowledge, I trust you will be a support in the ways that you can be to these important efforts. And, Mr. Emhoff, I saw in your profile online that care for children is a priority for you. Many minds and hearts of your team know this work of mercy.

As your hearts have been heart-broken by knowing of conditions of immigrant children and parents, mine was too, unexpectedly, from the first time I hesitantly wrote cards to children I didn’t know in detention centers in El Paso. Among the tragedies of the families, there is a child who as a baby was separated from parents who have not been located. Indeed, sources say that 360 children have been lost in the system, and 545 parents. Will you consider alleviating the suffering of separated children as an immediate priority? Pope Francis called family separation “cruelty of the highest form” in a documentary. When you help end this cruelty, a great chorus of peoples and angels will sigh together in chords of assent, relief, and congratulations.

With so much respect, cheering you on, prayers and thanks for your compassion and initiative,

Claudia Susan Gold, mother of a daughter, grandmother, MPH, ACSW

Addendum:

Seven steps for short and long term re-setting immigration

Link to collection of seven stories I wrote about hidden conditions of immigrants

Please click on the articles to the left of the images below

“At the moment of commitment, the entire universe conspires to assist you.” Goethe

Claudia S. Gold is a mother, clinical social worker, and public health educator educated at Columbia University. She headed the HUGS project for sending cards to separated children in three detention centers in El Paso, which was curtailed by the pandemic. She can be reached at penofgold@gmail.com.

Joe Biden and Dr. Jill Biden