We wish to express our profound disapproval of the federal government’s mistreatment of migrant children in Clint, Texas, and anywhere else in the United States.
Denying these very young people the ability to clean themselves evokes for us the sordid conditions experienced by prisoners in Solzhenitsyn’s “The Gulag Archipelago.” But the prisoners in these American detention centers are not political dissidents or “enemies” of the ruling state; they are kids.
We implore other educators and academics in Utah to similarly denounce the confinement of children and the denial of their basic needs. We also beseech our legislators to demonstrate Utah values and put people — especially vulnerable children, no matter their nationality — before politics.
Stephen B. Armstrong, Joy McMurrin and Randy Jasmine are professors at Dixie State University.
Donate to the newsroom now. The Salt Lake Tribune, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) public charity and contributions are tax deductible