Since Trump’s second term, his deadly paramilitary ICE forces have detained at least 6,200 children — more than ten times that of the previous administration. Nearly half of them are detained at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center, run by the private prison firm CoreCivic in Texas.
This month, parents, authors, educators and advocates have been demanding an end to ICE’s family detention with a read-aloud action called #ReadThemHome.
The action to raise awareness comes as parents and children, including toddlers, have described horrific conditions in detention — food with worms and mold, the lights on all night, medical neglect, and a growing mental health crisis.
Children’s books are about wonder, safety, and belonging. Reading one aloud is a small, but direct act of protest against a policy that strips children of all three.
Isaiah, a father in Illinois, is one who participated, reading: Life Doesn’t Frighten Me, a poem by Maya Angelou with paintings by Jean-Michel Basquiat. He said he chose the book because it’s about being brave, but no child should have to be this brave.
The poem begins:
“Shadows on the wall
Noises down the hall
Life doesn’t frighten me at all”
And later, continues:
“I go boo
Make them shoo
I make fun
Way they run
I won’t cry
So they fly
I just smile
They go wild
Life doesn’t frighten me at all”
Dorian Warren, Co-President of Community Change/Action and a father, read the Invisible String by Patrice Karst for the children and families in detention who need to know we haven’t forgotten them.
The book tells the story of two children who are scared to be away from their mother in the middle of the night. She shares how they are always connected by their love through an invisible string, even if she’s not near them — whether they are at school, in the deepest ocean, or at the top of the tallest mountain.
“Anywhere and everywhere,” she tells them, they are connected to everyone who loves them. “Love is stronger than anger, and as long as love is in your heart, the string will always be there.”