Child’s death at the border compels us to act

Latest

Jakelin Amei Rosmery Caal Maquin

 
Jakelin Amei Rosmery Caal Maquin, a 7-year-old girl from Guatemala, crossed the U.S. border on Dec. 6 with her father and 161 other migrants. On Dec. 8 she died while in Border Patrol custody, apparently of severe dehydration and septic shock. The Border Patrol didn’t reveal the death until almost a week later, after a journalist inquired about it.
The National Hispanic Media Coalition has joined the American Civil Liberties Union in calling for an investigation into Jakelin’s death. Dr. Colleen Kraft, the head of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said the death was “preventable” and called for pediatricians to have oversight of detention centers that hold migrant children. Congressional Democrats have also called for an investigation.
While Trump must be held accountable, the deaths along the border transcend presidential administrations. Some 6,000 people died trying to cross the southern border between 2000 and 2014, and Jakelin was not the first child to die. The real fault for all these deaths lies with the system that the government represents and protects.
Jakelin and her family lived in a tiny, very poor village in Guatemala. She got her first pair of shoes for the trip to the U.S. The dangerous journey was forced on Jakelin and her father. The impact of especially American corporations on Latin America has produced the poverty, violence and despotism there that forces people to migrate seeking safety and some way to live. That same system—an economy dominated by corporations and billionaires—is increasingly unable to provide for people in this country, and we in America are more and more subject to poverty, violence and despotism ourselves.
The American people do not want to live in a country that kills children—whether children born in this country or the children of immigrants. We as a people can no longer protect a system that is only working for corporations and billionaires. Humanity has the ability to produce an abundance for everyone on earth. We, the people of the world, must see ourselves as what we are: one humanity, which can and must join hands against the corporations so we can share the world and guarantee a bright future for everyone’s children.

+ Articles by this author

Free to republish but please credit the People's Tribune. Visit us at www.peoplestribune.org, email peoplestribune@gmail.com, or call 773-486-3551.

The People’s Tribune brings you articles written by individuals or organizations, along with our own reporting. Bylined articles reflect the views of the authors. Unsigned articles reflect the views of the editorial board. Please credit the source when sharing: ©2024 peoplestribune.org. Please donate to help us keep bringing you voices of the movement. Click here. We’re all volunteer, no paid staff.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Featured

Students Walk Out Across the Country to Protest Trump’s Election

Read the speech delivered by a student at the student walkout at MSU two days after the Presidential election. Thousands of students nationwide walked out to protest Donald Trump's election and his policies on the same day.

Let’s Join Hands to Resist the Trump Agenda

Thousands of groups and millions of people are beginning to reach out to one another to resist the Trump agenda. Regardless of who we voted for, we the people, have a common interest in seeing to it that all our families are well taken care of, that all children are well educated and have a future, and that we have a society free of climate disaster, racism, bigotry and inequality.

How Democrats Ignoring Gaza Brought Down Their Party

"Many Americans roused to action by their government’s complicity in Gaza’s destruction have no personal connection to Palestine or Israel. Their motive is not ethnic or religious. It is moral."

Undocumented Families Are Fighting for Our Future. Will You Join Us?

'As an undocumented mother, I can’t help but worry for my son’s safety first. As an organizer, my worry turns to resolve.'

Fighting for Climate, Students Walk Out Over Trump

"[The student nationwide] walkouts represent a call to action for both parties," said Sunrise Youth Movement, a group that advocates for political action on climate change.

More from the People's Tribune