Scarier Than the Boogeyman

April is Child Abuse Awareness Month. Going to college, I took a child welfare class to become a social worker, and we were taught about child abuse and neglect. We were taught that there are times when the government has to intervene to protect the welfare of a child and act in the child’s best interest. Growing up, I had no trust in the government. Child Protective Services (CPS) workers were labeled “baby snatchers,” and they were to be feared rather than trusted.

Early in my career, I went on home visits, and I supported women who were involved with child welfare. I saw firsthand cases of extreme neglect. I will never forget walking into a woman’s apartment where I saw three children, a baby on the floor next to a pile of milk and cereal caked into the carpet, a toddler staring blankly at a TV, and a five-year-old who smiled at me with silver teeth. The TV was blaring, and we had to announce ourselves multiple times before Mom came out of the bedroom. Mom had issues with drugs and the kids had been taken away on numerous occasions. I walked away from that visit conflicted. There were other occasions where CPS intervened, simply because mom was a survivor of domestic violence and the system was being used against the survivor by her abuser, labeling her as a bad mother, in a vindictive agenda.

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Multiple things can be true at once. The government can have a role in keeping children safe and intervening when parents cannot or will not protect their children. The government can also be a bad actor and enable abuse and neglect of children. I used to work for the Child Abuse Prevention Center in San Francisco, and one of the key areas of programming was teaching children to keep themselves safe. But what do you do when the government is the one enabling the abuse and neglect of children? Today, we are seeing the government enable abuse and neglect of children in immigration detention centers.

For example, Gael, a 5 year old that was being evaluated for autism, was detained at Dilley Detention Center for 45 days, where his parents stated, “he struggled to eat, often gagging on food, and went more than a week without a bowel movement, leaving his stomach visibly swollen and causing him pain”. Dilley Detention Center in South Texas has a reputation for serving contaminated food, where children lack access to education and even basic medical care. An estimated 1,800 children had passed through Dilley as of December. Dilley is just one immigration detention center. Senator Jon Ossoff’s Office has received or identified 18 credible reports that children as young as two years old, including U.S. citizens, have been mistreated in DHS custody.

“The Dilley facility is a family residential center designed specifically to house family units together in a safe, structured, and appropriate environment…where families who have been in the U.S. illegally can get medical care, educational services, recreational opportunities, and essential daily living needs while they await deportation,” said ICE Director Todd M. Lyons. ICE also contends that, “Medical professionals complete full assessments of all detainees within 48 working hours of admission, providing immediate referrals and priority care for kids, pregnant women, and medically vulnerable residents”. Yet, in a case reported to Senator Jon Ossoff’s Office, a pregnant woman bled for days before facility staff would take her to a hospital. Once she was there, she was reportedly left in a room, alone, to miscarry without water or medical assistance for over 24 hours. In another case in Louisiana, a detainee reportedly “nearly miscarried twice” while in ICE custody.

ICE states that “Being in detention is a choice.” Yet, no parent would choose this for themselves or their child. Advocates are calling for the closure of Dilley and similar facilities. Gael was released after advocates, including child educator Ms. Rachel, spoke with Gael over Zoom and rallied public outcry for his release. If we care about protecting children and preventing child abuse, we can close these facilities, and we can hold the government accountable for its failure to protect children.

Elisabet Avalos is a leader in housing justice, developing programs for survivors of violence experiencing homelessness, and a Public Voices Fellow of The OpEd Project on Domestic Violence and Economic Security.

Scarier Than the Boogeyman was first published by Latino News Network and was republished with permission.