Father’s Day: A Day for Families to Be Together

This Father’s Day provides an opportunity to recall one thing we shouldn’t take for granted – the opportunity to be with our children. It’s what makes Father’s Day so special. And given the news of migrant children being separated from their parents at the US-Mexico border, it’s especially poignant this year. 

Twenty years ago, Microsoft became the first business to partner with the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees in a new private sector program. Our goal was simple: to use technology to reunite families that had been separated by violence. The place was Bosnia, and the cause was the war that had ripped whole communities apart. The solution was straightforward: a new PC-based kit that volunteers could take to refugee camps, record people’s names, and upload to the fledgling internet to locate family members so they could be reunited. Over 300 Microsoft employees volunteered to travel to the region and help bring families back together.

Ten years ago, in the United States, Microsoft co-founded a national volunteer organization, Kids in Need of Defense, or KIND. It’s an organization I’ve chaired for a decade. The name says it all. Its goal is to enable lawyers to volunteer their time to ensure that kids separated from their families can be represented before an immigration judge. So many of these kids have fled towns and countries where their lives were endangered. They have stories that deserve to be heard. But that requires a lawyer who can ensure their stories can be told.

The response has exceeded everyone’s imagination. Today KIND involves 533 law firms, companies, law schools, and bar associations. More than 5,000 lawyers volunteer their time to represent more than 5,000 kids. They ensure that immigration judges have the facts needed to decide the cases before them. Frequently these decisions enable kids to stay lawfully in the United States and rejoin their families.

Three months ago, on behalf of KIND, I visited the former Walmart in Texas that has been the subject of attention this past week. It houses boys as they wait to reunite with their families and appear before an immigration judge. Afterwards, I drove along the border with officers who work for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, who described the daily challenges they face as they protect the border. 

The day was eye opening, but the most memorable part was an early-morning breakfast I had with a young man before he headed to school. He had fled Honduras three years earlier and had spent time in detention. He eventually won the right to stay in Texas to live with his mother and step-father. He was just a few months shy of his high school graduation, and he described his excitement about enlisting in the Marines this summer.

I asked why he had chosen the Marines among the various branches of the armed services. He smiled proudly and said, “if there is a war and we need to defend this country, I want to be the first to land on the beach. That’s what the Marines do.”

When we keep children with their parents, we not only follow in the footsteps of one of the world’s oldest and most important humanitarian traditions, we help build a stronger country.

That’s something worth remembering this Father’s Day.