LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Let's do right by refugees

Posted

To the editor:

Responding to a call from the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale and Congregation Adath Israel, a hundred congregants walked after morning services on Saturday, June 30, to the Riverdale Monument in protest against the Trump administration’s forcible separation of parents and children under its “zero tolerance” programs on illegal immigrants. 

The gathering in Riverdale was one of 750 protests nationwide involving more than 300,000 voices demanding the reunification of parents and children (with a number of the children less than 3 years old). 

A federal court ruling five days before the Day of Protests stipulated that the U.S. government must reunite children with their parents within 30 days. The nationwide protests underscore the question of whether the Trump administration has the means, or even the will, to obey the court ruling.

Four speeches at the Monument by the HIR rabbinic staff, including Rabbi Avi Weiss, emphasized the heritage of immigration as a source of strengthened humaneness in the United States, with the importance of asylum-seekers a foremost consideration. 

The 1951 Convention on the Status of Refugees, which the United States helped draft and ratify after World War II, prohibits imposing “penalties on account of their illegal entry or presence on refugees, who coming directly from a territory where their life or freedom was threatened.” 

Could there be a harsher penalty (for each of them) than the separation of a young child from its parent?

Several hundred separated children who were seized at the Mexico-U.S. border have already been “processed” (with some already placed in foster homes) through New York-area social service centers. 

The effort to identify and connect them with their parents is ongoing and a formidable challenge.

The number of children affected nationwide has been estimated at more than 4,000. Support is needed for the groups — including legal volunteers and social workers — that are directly engaged with the process of reunification.

Two such groups working in the New York area are the New Sanctuary Coalition and the Immigrant Justice Corps.

The Monument demonstration is only the beginning. More grassroots action is needed to help the half-million undocumented New York residents facing deportation by ICE. Among the groups working to help them are the Riverdale chapter of Bend the Arc, HANDS of St. Jerome (part of Catholic Charities), and Northwest Bronx Indivisible. 

Everyone can take part in their activities by joining or contributing to any of the groups. And by protesting.

Berel Lang

Berel Lang

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