The topic of immigration is a difficult one. The reality of being an immigrant is immeasurably harder. In recent years and months the news has carried countless stories of the daunting journeys immigrants take to achieve a better life in the United States. Immigration has been a legal and policy issue for our government—at both state and national levels—for many, many decades, into previous centuries. Some U. S. citizens regard immigrants with fear, others with concern for their well-being. We learn with appreciation about individuals who came as immigrants and contributed mightily to our culture and progress; we know that American society today is largely comprised of immigrants—from Europe, from Asia, from Africa and South America. What are we to understand? How are we to greet newcomers to our shores and borders today? In the book Hear My Voice: The Testimonies of Children Detained at the Southern Border of the United States, Warren Binford, an international children’s advocate and a professor of both law and pediatrics, records the voices of children who have crossed the Rio Grande from Mexico, sharing their experiences first-hand as they waited in detention centers. Published in 2021, the book provides a vivid look at the circumstances floods of migrant children faced, separated from their parents and guardians, in the migration process beginning in 2017. How did they sleep, eat and keep clean? We know that today, policies and practices surrounding the rights of immigrants are confusing, and injustices are too often the result. Michael Garcia Bochenek, of Human Rights Watch, says in his Foreword to the book: “This book, a story for children by children, wasn’t easy to tell and isn’t easy to hear.” Indeed, the truths of the young people interviewed are probably best shared by adults and children together in reading Hear My Voice. Readers hear the voices of 61 young people; 17 Latinx artists amplify their voices in startling yet tender double-page illustrations, providing crucial insight to the detention situation. Throughout, the courage of child migrants comes through. Additional notes provide depth on the legal and social context of child migrants, suggestions for what families might do to help, and thoughtful questions that could be the basis for family discussions. The book is presented in English from one cover and in Spanish from the other. Ages 8 to adult. Workman Publishing, New York, 2021.
Further information: United Nations Declaration on the Rights of the Child and the United Nations focus on the topic of migration
