This week during MTV’s Video Music Awards, Hip-Hop artist Logic, used his platform to bring awareness to the inhumane detention, incarceration, and separation of the thousands of immigrant families that were targeted by Trump’s zero-tolerance policy.
The artist, songwriter, and producer was joined by United We Dream, Make the Road NY, and National Domestic Workers Alliance community leaders and their children during his performance of his new song “One Day.”
The performance took place the same day that Donald Trump and the White House hosted the “Salute to the Heroes of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs [and] Border Protection” that praised the “heroes” who executed his zero-tolerance policy.
On one hand you have an A-list celebrity bringing awareness to the human rights crisis brought upon by one of Trump’s most inhumane and racially fueled policies to date, while 200 miles away there is a celebration honoring the same men and women who were enacted with the duty of physically separating hundreds of children from their parents and loved ones.
The song “One Day” tells the story of an immigrant child that was taken away from his mother by a deportation force while attempting to cross the border.
A story that has been repeating itself for decades at our southern borders, but more recently made headlines worldwide this summer when in a matter of a couple of months thousands were separated and detainesd as part of the administration’s zero-tolerance policy.
“Only this White House would give medals for taking thousands of immigrant children from their parents,” said Tom Jawetz, vice president for immigration policy at the left-leaning Center for American Progress, “and continuing to detain hundreds of orphaned kids in defiance of a court order.”
The Huffington Post reported that as of last Thursday, 2,089 migrant children of the total 2,654 who were taken from their families had been reunited.
Meaning that while both of these nationally watched events took place in our country, 565 children, including 2 who are younger than 5, are still sitting in government-contracted detention centers without their parents.
To add insult to injury, the administration tried to argue that the responsibility of locating the parents of the remaining separated children belongs to the ACLU who has the “considerable resources” and network to do so.
Ridiculous, isn’t it? Thankfully, the Californian U.S. district judge overseeing the current lawsuit between the federal government and the ACLU wasn’t having it.
“For every parent who is not located there will be a permanently orphaned child, and that is 100 percent the responsibility of the administration,” Sabraw stated.
As Logic did this past Monday during his performance at the VMAs, we must continue to keep these stories in the headlines.
We can’t be complacent with the number of families reunited and simply forget about those that are still living that nightmare.
Not until every child separated under Trump’s zero-tolerance policy is reunited with their loved ones, and even then, we must continue to fight and bring awareness so that it doesn’t happen again, especially in Trump’s America.