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IN THE NEWS
This week, it was reported that three children who are U.S. citizens were deported to Honduras with their mothers. One of the children is a 4-year-old boy with Stage 4 cancer, who was still receiving treatment. The two mothers were detained at their routine check-ins with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
When asked for comment about the deportations, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, “The children went with their mothers. Those children are U.S. citizens. They can come back into the United States ... but ultimately, who was deported was their mother, their mothers who were here illegally.” Some say that Rubio is twisting semantics to evade culpability.
For years now, we have been told that “cruelty is the point,” when it comes to hostile decisions made by the Trump administration. But there was a time when cruelty towards migrants was shamed.
Alan Diaz/AP
Recently, I’ve been thinking about Elián González Brotons. In 1999, he was a 5-year-old boy, who was rescued from an inner tube off the coast of Florida. His mother had taken him to flee Cuba when their boat sank. Though his mother drowned, the U.S. Coast Guard saved González and he was placed with a relative in Miami. But González's father was still in Cuba and wanted his son back there. It was a big news story that hit its peak in April of 2000 when U.S. federal agents stormed into González's relative’s Miami home. Last week marked the 25th anniversary of the infamous photo of González crying as a federal agent reached for him, while pointing a gun towards him. Ultimately, González was returned to his father in Cuba, and now in his 30s is a member of the Cuban parliament.
But the photo of young González captivated audiences across the U.S. and beyond – it even won the Pulitzer Prize. It also sparked a conversation about the humanity with which our government treats people who come to the United States in search of a better life – even for Secretary Rubio. In his 2012 memoir An American Son, Rubio wrote about his time in Miami as a 28-year-old recently elected House Representative during the raid on González’s relative’s home. In fact, Rubio parked his car on the family’s street and walked towards the house to witness the raid. He wrote, “The vast majority of the Cuban exile community, including me, wanted Elián to remain in the United States, and his father to join him here. The notion that he be forcibly returned to a regime his mother had given her life to rescue him from was unfathomable to us.”
That quote shows there was a time when the wishes of an immigrant mother for her child in the United States were understood by Secretary Rubio. Maybe he should re-read his own book.
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ON THE POD
Marsha P. Johnson was a trailblazer in the fight for gay rights — from being a key figure in the Stonewall Riots in 1969 to an organizer in the HIV-AIDS crisis in the 1990s. But Johnson's legacy extends beyond her activism: "Marsha was a really full person who lived a vibrant life. She was a muse and model for Andy Warhol," and a performer in New York City and London. In this episode, we talk to activist and author Tourmaline about what we can all learn from Johnson's legacy in times of adversity.
Tourmaline's two books about Marsha P. Johnson — Marsha: The Joy and Defiance of Marsha P. Johnson and One Day in June — are out on May 20, 2025.
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I’m thinking about how Tiktok has changed how we engage with certain words online -- sometimes even self-censoring. For example, instead of gun, people will say “pew pew” or instead of kill, they will say “unlive.” Is there a self-censored turn of phrase or emoji on Tiktok that has really caught your attention? Email us at CodeSwitch@npr.org.
Written by B.A. Parkerand editedby Dalia Mortada
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