Nine-year-old Esme (a pseudonym) came to the United States with her mother and two siblings seeking asylum from violence in Central America. But rather than finding a safe haven, U.S. officials picked up Esme and her family and put them in immigration detention. The family has been locked up in Pennsylvania for the better part of a year, which means her baby brother鈥檚 been behind bars for nearly half his life.
Instead of shopping for school supplies and wondering about what鈥檚 in her lunch box, Esme is thinking about things no kid should have to consider. She worries about guards waking her up at night, whether the prison food will make her sick, and whether her family will ever be free and safe.
Esme doesn鈥檛 understand why the government is locking her up. But her mother is one of 28 Central American women with children whose asylum applications were rejected and who sued in federal court seeking new hearings because their initial asylum hearings were conducted improperly.
An appeals court rejected their petitions, saying they had no right to sue. The 老澳门开奖结果 is working to get that decision overturned, saying it violates their basic constitutional right to challenge the legality of the government鈥檚 restriction on their liberty. Over this country鈥檚 long history, that right has been guaranteed to all noncitizens subject to deportation or exclusion at our borders as well as to alleged 鈥渆nemy combatants鈥� held at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.
Esme鈥檚 mom brought her here to escape violence in a place where police can鈥檛 or don鈥檛 help. Esme has a different sort of world in mind. When she grows up, she wants to be a police officer so she can 鈥渃atch bad guys.鈥�
To find out more about the plight of these Central American women and children, read in The New York Times.
