How do you think these kids will be affected in 10 to 15 years? If you have been listening to the news, you have heard about these children being placed in a large cage with other kids, separated from their parents, and not knowing why. No explanation why. Not being able to get answers. Hearing other children crying for their parents too.
I remember, when I was 6 or 7 years old. My parents and all of us who could carry a hoe were working out in the fields, thinning beet plants. We saw immigration vans stop by. They questioned my parents and took me and my brother, forced us into the van. I remember crying. My Mom was crying which made me even more scared.
I remember getting separated from my brother after we got to this very large building. I was placed in a room with white kids in wheelchairs, some were on the floor, crawling towards me. I cried the whole time I was there. Except when I was offered some food. I felt I was there for days, but it was just one day, which felt to me like a lifetime. I just cried for my parents and kept asking where’s my brother? No one would tell me. I saw these kids in wheelchairs and kids on the floor coming towards me. I later found out; I was placed there because I did not speak English.
I was so afraid they were going to eat me, when I saw them crawling toward me, trying to touch me. I remember in my nightmares; I was lying in a stretcher covered with a light blanket and when someone like a doctor comes in, uncovered me and starts cutting parts off me to feed others, and they kept me alive for body parts. I saw myself with one arm, one foot, and one leg, and other pieces of me missing.
Finally, one of my older sisters came after me and she took me home. This has been one of the other experiences I will never forget. Of course, it was a law that all kids should be in school at my age. We didn’t know why.
Now, here we are, all because of political reasons all these kids are in cages and separated from their families. Last I researched this, late in 2020, 3 children had died. All this happening in the United States! Our land of the free. Let’s go back to the children.
I had a client who I will call Carlos. Carlos was 6 years old. Going to school, had other friends in school whose parents had been taken by ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) they take undocumented people who come to the United States.
The family wanted to make a safety plan. Wanted family to know what to do, where to go, like other families who were with them. Just in case ICE came. First of all, “DO NOT OPEN THE DOOR”! They will announce themselves and let you know who they are.
This child had been born in the United States but feared for his parents, and himself. He was having nightmares and had not been able to sleep for several weeks now. “Am I going to be placed in a cage?”
I asked if they had taken him to the doctor? They said yes. But he did not help, just gave him something to force this child to sleep. But he would wake up crying. He got worse and so the parents stopped the medication. The doctor said, “All kids go through this and he will outgrow it.”
I investigated on what was their spiritual belief. Carolos’ parents went to church on Sundays, they were Catholic and were teaching their children as well. While I was talking to Carlos’ parents, I gave him a little bottle of bubbles to blow bubbles. I asked him to tell me what colors he saw in the bubbles and what shape he saw the bubbles were. He responded appropriately.
I asked him to close his eyes and using his imagination to think of himself inside that bubble.
“Now, being inside the bubble, tell me what colors you see. Carlos tells me. I also asked if he had faith in God and his protection? He said “yes”. Long story short. I asked him to have God put the light of the Holy Spirit God, around the bubble with him in it for protection. You are building this bubble to place yourself and your parents in for God to protect them anywhere they may be, home, work, church.
We repeatedly practiced placing him inside the bubble within a second. He later said he could get inside the invisible bubble made by God for his protection so quickly, he felt safe. As I talked to the parents about other things, I would use the word “bubble!” to have him place himself inside it quicker, and he would close his eyes and imagine himself inside the bubble instantly, and say, “Safe!”
According to his parents, he didn’t need the medication and slept soundly after that.
I pray for these children, but I feel this is not enough, they need emotional resources and support as well. I understand there are some organizations, resources, and passionate people who are taking care of these children living in cages.