The recent deaths of two young children, who were in U.S. border custody shelters, hit a retired U.S. nurse particularly hard.
Retired nurse Beverly Lyne decided to take action, traveling to the U.S.-Mexico border in order to help migrant families.
“They're just people wanting to live their lives without fear of their children being kidnapped and trafficked, without their land being taken away from them,” she says.
Lyne is no stranger to humanitarian crises. Her medical career has taken her to places like Haiti, Nicaragua and Uganda.
After seeing the caravan of Central Americans living in tents and running from tear gas, she wanted to see for herself what was going on and how she could help.
“I've always worked, so I’m here and I’m going, ‘Oh, I need to do something.’”
By handing out supplies with the human rights group Border Angels and offering medical care when she could, Lyne saw firsthand how the children may not be getting the nutrition they need.
The recent of two migrant children, one of which who died from the flu, affected Lyne.
“They're stressed. Mommy is there, or daddy isn't there,” Lyne says.
Homeland Security says children in custody will be assessed more thoroughly, but Lyne says more has to be done, like sending medical specialists in to evaluate the children.
Lyne is glad she’s able to witness this firsthand. She says what she saw was much different than what she had heard.
“Because we hear from our leadership that there are all these terrorists that are hovering there with weapons to come in and harm us,” Lyne says. “I didn't see anybody that gave me pause to worry about my safety or wonder what the heck they're doing there.”
Lyne hopes her presence showed migrants something about Americans they might never meet.
“That they are being remembered, that they aren't forgotten and that we are caring for them,” she says.
Lyne hopes to give a new perspective from the other side of the wall.
