09/02/2026
Please read, reflect, and do something, say something, and take control of your narrative!
Please share!
163 CHILDREN. THREE MEN. AND A QUESTION WE NEED TO ASK.
I have been sitting with this story because, as a Puerto Rican, Latinx, culturally bilingual organizer and advocate, I understand exactly how narratives get constructed—and who gets placed at the center of them.
Florida law enforcement recently announced that 163 missing children, ranging in age from 2 months to 17 years old, were recovered during Operation Statewide Shield, a five-day statewide operation.
The children were located not only throughout Florida, but across six other states, Puerto Rico and 12 countries.
Many of these children had experienced abuse, neglect, exploitation or exposure to criminal activity, including human trafficking.
And three men were arrested in separate cases connected to the operation.
Their publicly released booking photographs are available. They appear to be White men, and they have been widely identified and discussed that way in subsequent reporting and social-media conversations.
So I have a question:
WHY ISN'T THIS STORY BIGGER?
Where is the sustained national coverage?
Where are the cable news panels?
Where are the politicians who routinely invoke “human trafficking” when the alleged perpetrators are immigrants?
Where is the outrage?
And perhaps most importantly:
Would this story be framed differently if these suspects were Latino immigrants, undocumented immigrants, Black men, Muslims, or people from another marginalized community?
I ask that question from a particular place.
I am Puerto Rican (1st gen Bx, NYC, born).
Spanish is my first language.
I am culturally bilingual and have spent my WHOLE life working with and advocating alongside Spanish-speaking communities (starting with/on behalf of my Mom), including many people labeled “undocumented.”
I have two undergraduate degrees (CUNY), including deep academic study of Latin American and Puerto Rican history and studies - over four decades.
I've been blessed to help lead, as President of the Florida Junta of the Puerto Rican Nationalist Party, Movimiento Libertador. I've been a Boricua, son of Don Pedro Albizu Campos, Nationalist since 1993 when I picked up his writings.
I've spent two decades doing national advocacy, organizing, training, and policy work.
I worked for more than five years with a national Latinx civil-rights organization as a non-attorney advocate. This labor of love took me from FL>GA>NY>VA>TX>DC...with Unlock The Box and NRCAT Philadelphia>San Francisco, Cali>part of a 26 strong state coalition; with JLUSA it was Alabama, NJ, Washington State, Indiana, Detroit MI, San Diego, CA, and a few others escaping me, Lol.
I spent 14 years working in live radio and media communications.
I have worked directly with people impacted by incarceration, immigration enforcement, poverty, racism and systems of oppression.
So I understand something about narrative.
I understand how easily an individual case becomes a justification for condemning an entire community when the person accused fits a familiar racial, ethnic or religious stereotype.
We have seen it over and over:
An immigrant commits a crime → immigrants become the story.
A Muslim commits a crime → Islam becomes the story.
A Black man is accused → Black men and “crime” become the story.
A Latino is accused → Latinos and immigration become the story.
But when the people pictured in the story appear to be White?
Suddenly, perhaps, we talk about the individual.
That's the double standard I am questioning.
And let me be clear:
I am NOT saying every White person is responsible for the actions of these three men.
I am NOT saying these three men collectively kidnapped or trafficked 163 children. They did not. The three arrests involve separate cases arising during the broader operation.
And I am NOT claiming that the lack of national coverage has been proven to be caused by race.
I am asking why.
Because media framing matters.
Who gets named?
Who gets generalized?
Who gets humanized?
Who gets criminalized?
Who gets portrayed as an individual?
And who gets turned into a threat to an entire race, religion, nationality or immigrant community?
For those of us who are directly impacted by these narratives, we cannot simply allow other people to tell our stories for us.
We have to participate in the narrative.
We have to write the posts.
Write the articles.
Write the op-eds.
Speak to the media.
Challenge the framing.
Bring history, culture and lived experience into the conversation.
And we have to do it without abandoning facts or allowing misinformation to become our weapon.
Because the children are bigger than the politics.
163 children were missing.
163 children were found.
Children experienced abuse, neglect and exploitation.
Investigations are continuing.
Every one of those children deserves our attention.
But so does the question of whose crimes become national spectacles—and whose crimes are allowed to remain individual stories.
I'm asking the media.
I'm asking elected officials.
I'm asking journalists.
I'm asking advocates.
And I'm asking all of us:
Why isn't this story receiving the level of national attention we would expect for 163 missing children?
And if the answer isn't race—
then let's examine the coverage and tell us what the answer is.
Because when marginalized communities are repeatedly made into the narrative, we have a responsibility to frame our own stories, speak in our own voices, and challenge the double standards when we see them.
The children deserve justice.
The truth deserves context.
And our communities deserve a fair narrative.
SOURCES:
Florida Attorney General — Operation Statewide Shield
Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE)
NBC Miami
WUSF / Florida Public Media
FOX 13 Tampa Bay
CBS 12
WCTV
WWSB ABC7
Action News Jax
People
Fox News
Lead Stories
