Wherever you are it’s unlikely that you haven’t heard about the current move by the US administration separating children from their parents who are seeking asylum. Despite many smokescreens and accusations that this policy has been around under previous administrations, that is simply a myth. The policy was introduced on 6th April 2018 and was the brainchild of John Kelly and Stephen Miller and approved by President Trump to serve as a deterrent for undocumented immigration.
And now, a group of US authors has said ‘No more’, coming together to raise more than $100,000 to help these children in detention camps following the news reports of the last few days. The authors behind the Kid Lit Says No Kids in Cages’ campaign include high profile names such as Melissa de la Cruz, Margaret Stohl and Rainbow Rowell who had originally hoped to raise enough to take out a full page ad in the New York Times Book Review. Now with donations exceeding expectations the group have decided to distribute the moneys to organisations who provide legal advice to those seeking asylum.
In a joint statement the authors declared:
“As members of the children’s book industry who have built careers with teen and youth readers around the world, we jointly and strongly condemn the inhumane treatment of immigrant children evidenced by the United States Department of Justice in the past week. We believe that innocent children should not be separated from their parents. We believe the “Zero Tolerance” directive issued by Attorney General Jeff Sessions is cruel, immoral and outrageous. We believe the Department of Justice is engaging in practices that should be restricted to the pages of dystopian novels. We demand and expect better, and call on our readers to do the same.”
So far the statement has been signed by almost 2,000 people, demanding an end to this inhumane policy. If you’d like to voice your opinion, make a donation or help in any way you can find all the details of the protest campaign here.
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