Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door! – The Statue of Liberty

One story that I came across in the last few days is that of Helen, a five year old girl from Honduras who came to America with her grandmother looking for a better life.

In July, Helen fled Honduras with her grandmother, Noehmi, and several other relatives; gangs had threatened Noehmi’s teen-age son, Christian, and the family no longer felt safe. Helen’s mother, Jeny, had migrated to Texas four years earlier, and Noehmi planned to seek legal refuge there.

When the family reached the scrubland of southern Texas, U.S. Border Patrol agents apprehended them and moved them through a series of detention centers. A month earlier, the Trump Administration had announced, amid public outcry over its systemic separation of migrant families at the border, that it would halt the practice. But, at a packed processing hub, Christian was taken from Noehmi and placed in a cage with toddlers. Noehmi remained in a cold holding cell, clutching Helen. Soon, she recalled, a plainclothes official arrived and informed her that she and Helen would be separated.

The next day, authorities—likely from the Office of Refugee Resettlement (O.R.R.)—called to say that they were holding Helen at a shelter near Houston; according to Noehmi, they wouldn’t say exactly where. Noehmi and Jeny panicked. Unable to breathe amid her distress, Noehmi checked herself into a local hospital, where doctors gave her medication to calm her down. “I thought we would never see her again,” Noehmi said.

But, in early August, an unknown official handed Helen a legal document, a “Request for a Flores Bond Hearing,” which described a set of legal proceedings and rights that would have been difficult for Helen to comprehend. (“In a Flores bond hearing, an immigration judge reviews your case to determine whether you pose a danger to the community,” the document began.) On Helen’s form, which was filled out with assistance from officials, there is a checked box next to a line that says, “I withdraw my previous request for a Flores bond hearing.” Beneath that line, the five-year-old signed her name in wobbly lettfterers.

What I fail to fathom is how the authorities could have a girl of just five years of age sign a legal document. How could she understand what she was signing? Criminals are given the luxury of a court appointed lawyer. Shouldn’t a child, just barely out of diapers, be allowed that same right?

Sadly, this is what America has been reduced to in the era of Donald Trump. Long forgotten are the words of that statue on Liberty Island. The America of Trump instead seeks to criminalize those fleeing oppression and violence. Alienating those who would come to America, build a life and contribute to their community.

Shame on you Mr. Trump. While you are wasting your presidency embroiled in controversy and paying off porn stars, real people are having their lives shattered by your incompetence and ignorance. Your famous hat says you want to make America great again. Actions, however, speak louder than head gear.

My only hope is that the American people will see what a travesty is being perpetrated at their expense and will come out and vote in droves in the upcoming mid-term elections. I pray that a strong contingent of Democrats will be elected and thereby force President Trump into a more humane and just leadership. A leadership that will not turn children into criminals.

America, the world is watching.