National Nurses United

infected gall bladder can lead to a number of serious complications, including death. "It is very upsetting," said Rose. "How can you just ignore some- body? [These detention staff ] are not medical providers. You just have to err on the side of the caution if someone is hurt." Finally, Rose said migrant after migrant shared with her stories of humiliation and verbal abuse at the hands of federal agents. One man who had suffered flesh wounds to his leg and head after being shot at the border, presumably by gang members, said he was taunted by agents. "He said the officer told him, 'Well, the only problem I see here is that it didn't go right through your brain,' and then [the officer] started laughing," said Rose. "[The officers] kept saying it was so unfortunate that he had become their problem instead of dying." The concerns RNRN volunteers shared are not new, they are the subject of a pending 2015 lawsuit charging conditions in federal detention are "inhumane and punitive." In recent months, U.S. Cus- toms and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan acknowledged that detention facilities are overwhelmed. "The dan- ger of violent assault on that journey, the potential for a tragic inci- dent in the crossing or in overwhelmed CBP facilities, or in transportation networks, is clear and present," he told reporters. Kennedy said hearing the migrants' stories made her ashamed of how the United States is treating families seeking asylum. "The migrants and asylum seekers are being treated as though they are animals and it is really hard to understand. It doesn't make any sense to me," she said. Carellas said she also struggles to make sense of how migrants are being treated. "At the end of the day we are all immigrants, and this is not the way we would have wanted to be received," she said. In stark contrast to what they experienced under federal deten- tion, Carellas said she was grateful for the opportunity to show migrants and asylum seekers that there are people in the United States who are caring and supportive and ready to welcome them as they deserved to be welcomed. "It was really powerful because you made a huge difference," said Carellas. "They would come in really shell shocked. But then the kids especially would start to open up and they would be hugging you and riding their bikes around and being kids, and that felt good." Rojas agreed, saying, "It is just a blessing I have health and knowledge to help others and make their lives a little bit better and that is why I went into nursing, just being there to hold their hand and listen, that is how I get fulfillment." Rojas and her fellow RNRN volunteers all said they are com- mitted to sharing stories from the migrants they met to educate their communities about the dire circumstances families are escaping. Carellas noted many people may be unaware that gener- ations of self-serving U.S. economic foreign policies helped create the conditions under which Latin American residents are fleeing their home countries. One family told Rojas they had a lumber business and had to leave because gang members threatened to kidnap their daughter when the family couldn't pay off the gang. To show they were seri- ous, the gang shot and killed two young men who were behind on their payments and dragged their bodies in front of the lumber store. "[The mother] told me, 'We took nothing, just the money in our pockets and left like thieves in the middle of the night,'" said Rojas. "I am telling you, to look at these people, the sounds of their voices, the anguish on their faces, you can't make that up." "How bad does it have to be for a mother or father with a small child to endure 45 days of travel?" said Rose. "They feel that they can't stay there complacent, and die of hunger or crime. They have to try and do something, and they do it." Rose said it is important that people know that migrants she spoke to came to the United States with a plan. They had sponsors to take them in and often jobs lined up. "They are all driven by hope," she said. "Literally, that is the last thing they have." Rachel Berger is a communications specialist with National Nurses United. J A N U A R Y | F E B R U A R Y | M A R C H 2 0 1 9 W W W . N A T I O N A L N U R S E S U N I T E D . O R G N A T I O N A L N U R S E 15 "How bad does it have to be for a mother or father with a small child to endure 45 days of travel? They feel that they can't stay there complacent, and die of hunger or crime. They have to try and do something, and they do it."

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