I Worked at a Child Migrant Center. What I Was Told to Do Was So Inhumane That I Quit.
“That’s only a rule you’d enforce if you saw these children not as children, but as a dollar amount.”
ANTAR DAVIDSON, AS TOLD TO JACKIE FLYNN MOGENSEN JUN. 20, 2018 1:00 PM

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/06/i-worked-at-a-child-migrant-center-what-i-was-told-to-do-was-so-inhumane-that-i-quit/



So when a shift leader told me to tell a group of kids they couldn’t hug, it confirmed to me something that I had been feeling for awhile: This wasn’t the humanitarian nonprofit that it was claiming to be. It was a private prison for youth that is extremely lucrative. One of the main characteristics of a system like that is a lack of compassion.

The shift leader was completely ignoring the fact these kids had been separated from their mother, they were in a country where they didn’t speak the language, and these kids were responding to being told they were being pulled away from their own family. They were crying and holding each other for dear life, and here comes this shift leader and she thought it was appropriate to say, “Tell them they can’t hug! Tell them they can’t hug!” That’s only a rule you’d enforce if you saw these children not as children, but as a dollar amount.

That night happened to be my birthday, and I intended to propose to my girlfriend. I had the diamond ring and everything. But I was so shaken by what had happened. I came home, got dressed, we went out, but I was just staring into space and thinking about what had happened. She actually knew I wanted to propose, but said, “I know you want to, but now is not the time. Let’s do it another day.” So, I postponed the proposal.

I quit shortly after that.

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/06/i-worked-at-a-child-migrant-center-what-i-was-told-to-do-was-so-inhumane-that-i-quit/