The One Hundred and Thirty Thousand

Photo: latintimes.com

7-28-2025

The One Hundred and Thirty Thousand

I cannot imagine the pain and suffering a parent goes through to lose a child. The death of a child must leave a gaping hole in a parent’s heart that can never be filled. They’re memory is never replaced, but lingers on for a lifetime. What about when a child goes missing? The uncertainty the horrors they may be facing must tear that hole even more?

In America an Amber Alert goes out over the airwaves, across the internet and on cell phones throughout the affected area when a child disappears.  Occasionally the child is found and returned to grateful parents, who are overjoyed at their reunion. Quite often that reunion never takes place.

During the Obama administration the “dreamers” were allowed entry into the US under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals; during the Biden administration out of the more than 20M undocumented migrants, more than 130,000 were unaccompanied children simply disappeared after being “absorbed” into the US; in the first six months of the Trump administration more than 13,000 unaccompanied minors have been “recovered” but to what end?

Among the questions that come to mind is, “Where are the parents?” Have there never been any investigative reporters or law enforcement investigations to determine where they came from? We’ve seen the pictures of 2 year old migrant children coming to the US Southern border wearing new clothes, sometimes brandishing a handwritten sign with the name of a city, state and a contact phone number, but has anyone followed up as to who is at that number? Has anybody documented names, cities and countries of origin for any of these children? Why have there not been heartbroken parents besieging the embassies of the United States around the globe with pictures, information, birth certificates, dates and circumstances of the disappearance of these children? Where is the worldwide clamor for affecting the return of these missing children?

How many of these children died enroute to the US? Who mourns for them? Who cares?

What are the circumstances for parents to give their children into the hands of strangers, never to be seen again? I thought international human smuggling was a major criminal offense? – RTM