We are one month out from the launch of THE CHAPERONE, people. One month!
Luckily I got a good sign yesterday when #1 New York Times bestseller @CameronSharonE sent me this amazing blurb. Thank you so much, Sharon!
@toqmv@CameronSharonE Yes! Iāve already started working on it. But before that, Iāve written a book about two teenagers who are separated during a tornado and have to walk back to each other.
We are one month out from the launch of THE CHAPERONE, people. One month!
Luckily I got a good sign yesterday when #1 New York Times bestseller @CameronSharonE sent me this amazing blurb. Thank you so much, Sharon!
šØBREAKING: ICE agents were operating right next to a SCHOOL BUS STOP, during morning pickup in Lindenwold, New Jersey.
Children were standing waiting for the bus when federal agents flooded an apartment complex.
Kids started running in fear, and as they ran, an SUV followed.
Let that sink inā¦
Elementary school kids, backpacks on, running from armed agents while a vehicle follows them through their own neighborhood.
We keep being told these operations are about āpublic safety.ā There is nothing about sending dozens of children into a panic before school that makes anyone safer. There is nothing normal about federal agents patrolling bus stops and apartment complexes like this.
And weāre supposed to believe this is protecting children?
At the same time the country is re-examining how often predators operate in positions of power, how often abuse hides behind wealth, connections, and authority, we are normalizing masked agents and unmarked SUVs hovering around school pickup points. We are normalizing fear as part of a childās morning routine.
You cannot claim to be fighting trafficking while creating chaos around school bus stops. You cannot claim to be pro-child while conducting aggressive operations in spaces where kids are supposed to feel safe.
šØThe Trump administration is child trafficking 2-MONTH-OLDS.šØ
This is Juan NicolƔs.
He turned 2 months old inside the Dilley Detention facility⦠a mass family detention facility the Trump administration moved to reopen and expand, specifically to hold parents and children for longer periods of time.
For years, under long-standing court protections from the 1997 Flores Settlement Agreement, children were rarely detained for long periods.
The agreement was simple⦠minors had to be released āwithout unnecessary delay,ā generally within about 20 days, and held in the least restrictive setting possible.
That was the baseline.
The Trump administration tried to undo that.
They moved to terminate Flores, and rewrote regulations to allow indefinite family detention.
They expanded fast-track deportation policies that funneled families into detention instead of community release, and gutted oversight.
They weakened child welfare standards, and increased contracts with private prison corporations to reopen and operate facilities like Dilley.
And they did all of it to achieve one goalā¦
To hold families longer.
The longer you hold people, the more money flows to detention contractors. These facilities operate on per-bed, per-day payments, infants included.
AKA, human trafficking.
Inside Dilley, families have reported overcrowding, inadequate medical care, children getting sick, extreme stress, sleep disruption, and poor nutrition.
Chronic stress, dehydration, and inadequate food can impact lactation.
Mothers losing weight rapidly can lead to losing their milk supply.
And when breastfeeding isnāt possible?
Formula is prepared with tap water from shared sinks, bottles are washed in communal bathrooms, and parents have issues being able to boil or sterilize water and bottles.
For a 2-month-old with an undeveloped immune system, improper sterilization increases the risk of infection and dehydration.
That is endangering the lives of babies.
And they are CHOOSING to do it.
This isnāt an accidentā¦
Itās policy.
And here is what makes this even more disturbingā¦
During the 2024 campaign, Trump repeatedly claimed the Biden administration ālostā more than 300,000 migrant children who he said were trafficked or in danger.
But, in reality, most of those children were safely released to family members, and the so-called āmissingā figure was a function of paperwork gaps, missed court notices, and system tracking problems⦠not children vanished into trafficking.
Now, the same administration claims it is āfindingā those children⦠but what theyāre really doing is locating kids to⦠traffick them into detention facilities.
You canāt talk about ārescuingā children while youāre confining them in cages.
You canāt say you protect kids while you treat them as contract beds for profit.
And you certainly canāt claim to care about the lives of babies while you throw them into concentration camps.
A country that uses children as political leverage, and profit, has already crossed a moral line that they cannot come back from.
Great news, book lovers! ā¤ļø š
The Chaperone eBook is on sale today for just $1.99 at all booksellers.
Books make great holiday gifts! š
#holidaygifts#holidaygiftguide#ebooks