“With liberty and justice for all.” 

This is the end to a pledge forced into our brains as young children, but today, children at that same age are being ripped from their mother’s arms by the government.

America is a nation of immigrants who has always welcomed those in need, yet the immigrants that make up our population are being thrown out like they’re worthless.

These families that try to cross the border do so to protect themselves. They leave everything they have to come to a safer place, bringing only the clothes on their backs.

A woman, only identifying as Carmen, fled San Salvador with her family, leaving everything they had. She told El País that, “a member of a gang had become obsessed with her. He said he would kill Carmen if she did not date him.”

According to The Washington Post, a family of six fled to the United States from San Salvador because they were being demanded to pay a gang. They did at first to protect themselves. 

When they could no longer pay, 20 gang members showed up at their doorstep demanding $10,000. If they didn’t pay, they would all be killed.

They left everything behind the next day and began their long trek to the border. The walk from El Salvador to the U.S. border is close to 2,000 miles, and they did it for the sake of their own lives.

Due to their departure, one close family member was shot to death while another was cut to smithereens.

When they finally arrive to the United States, they have the possibility of being brutally separated from each other and incarcerated.

The children face the possibility to be put into government custody where they are malnourished and treated like they’ve committed a crime.

In Newsweek’s article about the childrens’ conditions, a 17 year-old boy said (referring to Ursula detention center where he was being held) that he was not given a toothbrush, he’s given no opportunity to shower, no soap and no privacy to even go to the bathroom.

This is no way to treat any person, let alone a child, who is just trying to live a safe life with their parents. 

After fighting for their lives in their homeland, they walk hundreds, or even thousands, of miles to the border just to be torn apart and thrown in a cage to once again fight for their lives.

These strict policies have come about because of our president, the president of the mixing pot of the world, calling these innocent people “illegal aliens” and claiming that they are the reason for unemployment in the United States. 

It’s actually the contrary, however. According to the Cato Institute, “Unemployment is highest when immigration is lowest.” 

The Cato Institute later showed in a graph that the unemployment rate went up by 1.45 percent when the immigration rates were below average compared to above average.

Our country is the land of the free, yet we have to have the discussion about who is actually free here and who doesn’t deserve those rights to live in liberty.

This is not an article I should have to write in the country I live in. America is a country built off of immigrants, yet our government supports ripping families apart because they weren’t born here. That is not what this country’s message is supposed to be.