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Official Statement from Mormon Women for Ethical Government on Child Detention
August 23, 2019 Mormon Women for Ethical Government condemns the regulation announced by the Trump administration on Wednesday that would abolish the 20-day limit on holding families in jails. Our opposition to this regulation is grounded in our clear and deeply held conviction that families are sacred and all children deserve to be cherished and protected. A government that disregards clear evidence of its own abuse deserves a strong rebuke and should immediately correct the harm it is causing to innocents, many of whom bring with them past trauma. To knowingly inflict further trauma on families upon their arrival at the southern border is intolerable. While children are already a…
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Official Statement From Mormon Women for Ethical Government on the Victimization of Children in Our Broken Immigration System
June 6, 2019 Last week, the Acting Inspector General released a report recommending that the Department of Homeland Security take immediate action to address the dangerous and inhumane treatment of detainees, including family units and unaccompanied minors, at a border patrol processing center in El Paso, Texas. On Monday, we learned that 37 migrant children between the ages of five and twelve were kept in vans in the sweltering Texas heat last July for between 23-39 hours, depending on the child, while waiting to be processed for reunification with their parents. This happened after public outrage forced the administration to backpedal on its inhumane zero-tolerance policy that led to thousands…
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Official Statement from Mormon Women for Ethical Government on New Revelations About the Separation of Children from Their Families at the Border
January 17, 2019 This morning the Office of Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released a report indicating that “thousands” more children had been taken away from their families and guardians at the border than previously reported. This news is horrifying and completely unacceptable. It underscores the inescapable moral responsibility that we have as a nation to fix our broken immigration system. This kind of thing—the separation of children from their families—must never again happen on American soil. We echo the statement from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints asserting that “immigration reform should strengthen families and keep them together. The forced separation…
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MWEG-Arizona Holds Vigil at the Border
Powerful moments at the Arizona vigil at the border wall. Participants were intently watched by border patrol agents the entire time, and the media turned up in force. One participant wrote: We had two television stations, two local newspapers, and a reporter from Buzzfeed. All stayed nearly the entire time. We sang, we prayed, and we shared our light – all with a backdrop of daily life in Mexico playing out behind us. As two children curiously watched us from the stoop of the bodega on the other side of the wall, I was moved by our common humanity. #familiesbelongtogether #MWEGvigil #arizona
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Families Can Be Together Forever; Families Should Be Together Now
May 15, 2018 Today is International Day of Families, and here at Mormon Women for Ethical Government we believe families can be together forever. We also believe families should be together NOW. For this reason, we are choosing to stand in solidarity with mothers, fathers, and children who are at risk of forced separation from cruel and unjust measures currently being pursued by Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen at our borders. Join us as we plead with her to put an end to family separations. #KeepFamiliesTogether #EndFamilySeparation #mormonweg Send your letter or email to: The Honorable Kirstjen M. Nielsen Secretary of Homeland Security Washington, D.C. 20528 DHSSecretary@hq.dhs.gov Learn more: https://www.deseretnews.com/article/900017735/op-ed-breaking-up-families-is-antithetical-to-us-ideals.html
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Mother’s Day Call to Action: Immigration
May 11, 2018 Please join us in sending Mother’s Day cards to DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen pleading with her (in true MWEG fashion consistent with our Principles of Peacemaking) to stop unnecessarily separating mothers and children at the border. Our op-ed in the Deseret News last week explained how the Department of Health and Human Services recently confirmed that, since October 2017, it has taken custody of more than 700 children at the U.S. border, including more than 100 children under the age of 4. (https://www.deseretnews.com/article/900017735/op-ed-breaking-up-families-is-antithetical-to-us-ideals.html) DHS claims to be merely doing its duty to protect children, but such motives are called into question by the fact that many of…
