Immigrant parents and refugees have had to go out of their way to protect their children. In some cases, this involves keeping kids home from school and appointments. A non-profit daycare for immigrant children and refugees in North Carolina felt true fear when DHS agents were seen gathering outside their very own walls. As ICE swarmed the area, parents and children feared they’d be viciously separated from their families by border patrol.
Our Bridge For Kids, the non-profit daycare in question, shared a post on Instagram, claiming over 20 ICE and CBP agents were appearing outside the daycare in Charlotte. This resulted in the daycare ceasing on-site events to protect the children, but made it crystal clear they weren’t going to stop helping others. In fact, ourBridge was going to ensure that resources still reached immigrant families, including information about their rights.
MS NOW confirmed DHS’s presence in a TikTok video, where they met with members of Our Bridge For Kids. While reporter Alex Tabet of MS NOW was on the scene, one of the members of the non-profit came rushing into the daycare to announce ICE’s presence, “We have a report that ICE is on campus. Everybody inside, doors closed.”
Another person answers a phone call and says barricades were put up outside as another employee looks on, near tears. It’s grim, as this non-profit provides childcare services for children of refugees and immigrants. Alex walks through the halls of the center, saying they aren’t “letting fear stop them from making a difference.”
Alex shows helpers continuing to collect donations for people in their community, while ICE surrounds the city outside. And the reason? The center knows immigrant families are afraid to leave their homes to do something as simple as grocery shopping. Imagine having to fear ICE could be right around the corner, waiting to dismantle your family at its roots?
The consensus in the comments was “ICE is a terrorist organization” and “ICE is the modern-day Gestapo,” said in a myriad of ways.
“A day care center rallying to protect children and families from who?? The government. We should never get used to this. We should never accept this. We have to keep fighting. History will not look on this regime kindly,” argued another.
Additionally, Alex Tabet interviewed the daycare’s Associate Director, Salma Villareal. “They do not honor children. They do not care about the humanity of children,” she states, and it’s hard to argue otherwise. For a presidential administration that insists on ‘family values,’ they sure do love tearing families apart.
