Can we start with the shared value so beautifully articulated by Emma Lazarus, the 1903 inscription<\/a> at the base of the Statue of Liberty?<\/p>\n \u201cGive me your tired, your poor, Can we please start with people escaping drug war violence and seeking economic opportunity? I wrestle painfully with the idea that those who are struggling to find a better life encounter some of the worst inhumanity as they are subjugated by our border services.<\/p>\n This week, the Associated Press<\/a>, New York Times<\/a>, WAMU<\/a> and others reported hundreds of migrant children were removed from a Border Patrol station in Clint, Texas. WAMU and the Times reported lawyer Elora Mukherjee, director of the Immigrants\u2019 Rights Clinic at Columbia Law School, said, \u201cThere is a stench. The overwhelming majority of children have not bathed since they crossed the border. \u2026 The conditions were the most degrading and inhumane conditions I have ever seen and I have been representing asylum-seeking children and their families in detention facilitates since 2007. This is unacceptable and should not be happening in America.\u201d<\/p>\n WAMU reported Dr. Dolly Lucio Sevier visited the Ursula detention center in McAllen, Texas, and said, \u201cWhat impacted me the most was the inability of the mothers to wash their infant\u2019s formula bottles. \u2026 They rinse (the bottles) with water that\u2019s supposed to be used for drinking, in a bathroom sink that does not have running water, and they have no soap.\u201d<\/p>\n Courthouse News Service<\/a> reports more than 1,400 unaccompanied immigrant children are expected to be held at a former Japanese Internment camp at Fort Sill, Oklahoma.<\/p>\n For the record, U.S. Customs and Border Protection reports<\/a> 56,278 unaccompanied alien children were detained this year through the end of May, a 74% increase over last year. In my humble opinion, this is a problem President Donald Trump created. Well maybe he didn\u2019t create it, but he sure exacerbated it. When we first started reporting Trump\u2019s border immigration emergency, there was no emergency. The more he ranted about it, the more the problem grew.<\/p>\n More people were apprehended in the first eight months \u2014 676,000 people \u2014 of the 2019 fiscal year than in any other 12-month period in the past five years. Just prior to Trump\u2019s wall emergency and government shutdown to get his wall, immigration apprehensions were down. The lowest immigration rates occurred in 2017 according to Border Protection.<\/p>\n We\u2019re spending billions going into profiteers\u2019 pockets to warehouse these people, often in filthy cages, when they could be working, paying taxes and contributing. Proper efficient border security would mean good-paying jobs for Americans, instead of billions of taxpayer dollars going to deficient and inhumane warehousing.<\/p>\n I\u2019m proud that one of the newest charities in Summit County is Mountain Dreamers<\/a>, an organization dedicated to pushing forward citizenship and opportunities for young people who were brought here as children.<\/p>\n In a town meeting this week, state Rep. Julie McCluskie and Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser spoke about how the Summit County community is often a model for the state, and the state a model of political cooperation for the nation. We hope Mountain Dreamers and the myriad of Summit County programs designed to uplift and empower our immigrant workforce will enlighten and encourage others to follow suit.<\/p>\n Susan Knopf\u2019s column \u201cFor the Record\u201d publishes Fridays in the Summit Daily News. Knopf has worn many hats in her career, including working as an award-winning journalist. Knopf is a certified ski instructor at Loveland Ski Area. She moved to Silverthorne full time in 2013 after vacationing in Summit County since the 1970s. Contact her at sdnknopf@gmail.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/04\/ColKnopf-SDN-081118-258x300.jpg\")