It’s that time of year. New backpacks filled with school supplies. For that special first-day outfit, most got to pick something new. Others wore what was found at the like-new store but spruced up so no one would know. Maybe getting on the school bus for the first time. Some smiling waving out the back window. Others cry as the bus pulls away. Snacks in the lunchroom. Maybe a new friend on the playground.
Soon, most will be shopping for that special Halloween costume. Moana and Spider-Man, Minecraft Characters and Wicked, getting ready for the parade at school and maybe a neighborhood party. And, of course, all that candy.
Each experience is an important rite of passage for children. For some, that is, but not all. Not for the ones in ICE detention.
And as the days get colder, like most children, they too will start thinking about Santa and Christmas morning. But their thoughts will be quite different. Maybe they’ll remember how they used to leave carrots for Santa’s reindeer. “Who will feed the reindeer, Mommy?” Maybe they’ll dream of sitting on Santa’s lap again, asking for what they’d like. “Afterall, I’ve been really good this year but, then maybe, Santa doesn’t think so or I wouldn’t be here.”
If they’d heard, “’Twas the Night Before Christmas,” they might look around and wonder, “How will Santa get in? How will he find me?” Perhaps, if they’d been to Sunday school, mom or dad might try to reassure them at bedtime by singing, “Jesus loves me this I know,” only soon to find themselves blinking tears away seeing that not even the song, or treasured stuffed animal, or makeshift pillow, their child is squeezing tight, can soothe away the deep sadness etching their face.
We shouldn’t be surprised at the Trump administration’s total disregard for children. As I reported in my 3-17-2025 article, “Donald Trump’s Actions are Antithetical to Christian Life,” on day-one Trump rescinded former President Biden’s Executive Order to reunite some 4,600 children separated from their parents during his first term. When Trump took office again, approximately 1,360 children were still not reunited. He immediately made sure his administration would no longer take part in making any such amends for the damage he perpetrated.
Today, according to The Marshall Project, 4-6-2026, ICE has detained 6,200+ children, up 10x since Biden left office. While U.S. immigration authorities have long held children in detention, the Project reports, “President Joe Biden ended family detention in 2021 and, by the final year of his presidency, ICE was holding a daily average of 24 children in custody. But after Trump revived the policy last year, the number jumped tenfold, to 226 children incarcerated on the average day since he came back into office.”
But numbers can easily sanitize the reality. Bed-wetting. Nightmares. Outbursts. Withdrawal. Perpetual sickness. Hollow eyes. These tell the true story. And anyone familiar with childhood trauma will immediately concur with Rep. Joaquin Castro’s response to The Marshall Project’s released detention data, “No innocent child should ever be imprisoned. The Trump administration’s cruel mass deportation campaign is ripping away childhoods and inflicting trauma that these young people will carry for their entire lives. It’s wrong and must end.”
Trump’s response? As part of his annual budget to Congress, The Marshall Project reports his administration requested funding for “up to 30,000 family unit beds.”
Republicans seem desperate to be perceived as the party holding the true Christian values. Prominent female commentators proudly wear their cross necklaces. President Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson have repeatedly advocated for the blending of faith with public policy except for, of course, when it comes to immigration.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, ironically, has defended laws to display the Ten Commandments in public school classrooms. It makes me wonder if he, and others, realize the Ten Commandments are actually a key part of the Hebrew Bible of Judaism, which Christians are fond of calling the Old Testament, largely conflating it with the New Testament.
Instead, why not display the words of Jesus from, for example, the Gospel of Matthew? How about, “Let the little children come to me and do not stop them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these,” Matt. 19:14, or, even better, Jesus’ warning, “If any of you causes one of these little ones to stumble, it would be better for you to have a large millstone around your neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea.” Matt18:6.
Trump supporters, no amount of those cross necklaces you’re wearing will silence the cries of the children. No amount of pious rhetoric will ease the long-term trauma. No justification will ever change what will “not” happen for these children on Christmas morning. Ever.
Beware the depths of the sea.
