{"id":27705,"date":"2026-02-26T15:39:42","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T22:39:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/?p=27705"},"modified":"2026-02-26T15:39:42","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T22:39:42","slug":"im-writing-this-letter-so-that-you-can-hear-my-story-i-need-you-to-help-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/?p=27705","title":{"rendered":"\u201cI\u2019m writing this letter so that you can hear my story. I need you to help us.\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

\u201cI\u2019m writing this letter so that you can hear my story. I need you to help us …”<\/p><\/div>\n

Therefore I shall speak not of “natural needs” but of the “existential limit to the satisfaction of needs”.
\nAgnes Heller, The Theory of Need in Marx<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

February began with ProPublica<\/em> sharing letters written by children currently and previously detained at Dilley Immigration Processing Center in South Texas. There is no processing at Dilley, only the torture and abuse of children, children\u2019s families, children\u2019s communities, and therefore everyone. That was February 9, 2026. The article was entitled, \u201c\u201cI Have Been Here Too Long\u201d: Read Letters from the Children Detained at ICE\u2019s Dilley Facility<\/a>.\u201d Well, today is February 26, 2026, and ProPublica<\/em> released an update, \u201cSeized Art, Eavesdropping Guards: Parents Describe a Clampdown at Dilley Detention Center as Kids Shared Their Stories<\/a>\u201d. Dilley has tried to silence and throttle the kids by stealing their crayons, papers, pencils, artwork, all done in the name of \u201csecurity\u201d. The children just keep on writing and drawing, because they have to \u2026 because we need to hear them.<\/p>\n

Seven-year-old Mathias Bermeo wrote: \u201cI\u2019m writing this letter so that you can hear my story. I need you to help us I have been detained for 23 days with my mom and my 3-year-old sister. I cry a lot I want to get out of here go back to my school they don\u2019t treat us Well here there are many children we are kidnapped help!\u201d<\/p>\n

Dilley claims they are providing everyone with their \u201csafety, security, and medical needs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Who do you believe? Whose version of \u201cneed\u201d do you believe, that of a corporate spokesperson intoning the words you know they\u2019d utter or that of a seven-year-old child who writes because he needs us to help him, his family, and community?<\/p>\n

Nine-year-old Valentina writes, \u201cI have been detained for a long time. My parents say it\u2019s been 4 months but for me and my little sister Jireth it feels like a year I just want to go to the United States to be with my grandparents and finally end this nightmare that my family has had to live through, I feel like I\u2019ve had the worst days of my life I want God to help us get out of here so we can be happy again and study together as a family. Please help us and our parents get out of here thank you.\u201d<\/p>\n

When you live in a nightmare, four months is a year.<\/p>\n

I need you to help us.<\/p>\n

They have been there too long. We<\/em> have been there too long.<\/p>\n

Thank you.<\/p>\n

\"\"

“My parents say it\u2019s been 4 months but for me and my little sister Jireth it feels like a year …. “<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

(By Dan Moshenberg)<\/p>\n

(Image Credits:\u00a0ProPublica<\/em><\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Therefore I shall speak not of “natural needs” but of the “existential limit to the satisfaction of needs”. Agnes Heller, The Theory of Need in Marx February began with ProPublica sharing letters written by children currently and previously detained at Dilley Immigration Processing Center in South Texas. There is no processing at Dilley, only the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27705"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27705\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27708,"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27705\/revisions\/27708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}