Six-year-old Juan de León Gutiérrez; 8-year-old Felipe Gómez Alonzo; 6-year-old Jakelin Caal Maquin; two additional children a 10-year-old and a 2-year-old, both from Guatemala, have died in the past two years as a result of the Trump administration’s Border Policy. Add to that this week, the confirmation of the May death of 16-year-old Carlos Gregorio Hernández Vásquez from Guatemala who apparently died of flu-related symptoms with a reported 103-degree temperature. He was found on the floor of his holding cell, within feet of a bathroom toilet. An indecent death, precipitated by an indecent policy, from an indecent President.

Immigration is a problem in the United States, it is not a threat to life or liberty, but there is justification for the concept of controlling borders. Estimates vary, according to the political lens from which you examine the subject, that upwards of 11 million undocumented immigrants reside in the United States, 2.1 million of those are from white European countries. My contention of xenophobia and racism as being a significant factor in the deaths of these children is anecdotally evidenced by the lack of Irish, French, or Norwegian names on the list of deaths. The lives sacrificed on the altar of a debatable policy, bastardized by racism, were children with identifiable Hispanic surnames; their demise was painful, lonely and wholly unnecessary. Ladies and gentlemen, we have a xenophobic mass killer in the White House.

The normalization of the horrific scenes of suffering including crying babies ripped from their mothers, the bodies of a father and daughter drowned and floating offshore, should keep us all up at night. Now the death of young Mr. Vásquez, warning:

When I was finally able to watch the above video, my first feelings were not “thoughts and prayers” they were ‘horror and shame.’ Republicans are ritualistic in their admonishment of Democrats after the repeated mass shootings of our fellow citizens for politicizing the gun issue. They say let us be prayerful for a few weeks then we will take up the issue of gun legislation. What they are really hoping for is that the short memories of tragedy will wash offshore like the bodies of Óscar Alberto Martínez Ramírez, and his daughter Valeria. Following the deaths of these migrant children, [C]onservatives immediately used political blame, aiming it at the families, the system and the Democrats for wanting “ open borders.”

The cowardly, callous and calamitous adoptive policies of the President relying on the advice of a proven White Nationalist, Stephen Miller, makes me hang my head in shame. We have lived through worse in this country, we have created some on our own. History has been kind because ultimately enough morality has prevailed. I recoil when I see angrily contorted faces at Republican MAGA rallies wearing t-shirts that read, I would rather be Russian than Democrat or a conservative TV host siding with the Russians over our Ukrainian allies. The would-be killer of our democracy is not outside the house he is inside with a phone and an open Twitter app locked and loaded.

Vote in 2020 for Change.