Cartoon by Mike Luckovich
Separating immigrant families is inhumane
Seattle Times editorial board: People fleeing violence and poverty deserve our nation’s compassion, not a demonstration of its cruelty.
Yet the U.S. government’s policy of increasing prosecutions of the number of people who cross the border illegally is the very definition of inhumane. The result is that parents, including asylum seekers, are separated from their children.
America cannot preach the importance of treating others with dignity in its dealings abroad — acting as a defender of human rights at the United Nations, for example — while simultaneously ripping children from their parents’ arms in California and Texas.
Continuing this practice threatens the United States’ standing on the global stage and runs counter to the values we espouse as a nation.
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The Trump administration’s plan to start criminally prosecuting 100 percent of people who cross the border illegally — a misdemeanor on the first offense — is a tactic specifically aimed at jailing parents and separating them from their children.
Trump’s chief of staff said separating families “could be a tough deterrent.”
Yet separating families is bound to inflict psychological harm not just on parents, but also the vulnerable children in their care.
Already, about 700 children were reportedly taken from their parents at the border between October and April as part of the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal crossings. While official numbers are not yet available for May, people working on immigration cases have reported a sharp uptick in family separations since Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the administration’s new zero-tolerance policy May 7.
Misdemeanor offenses often don’t result in any jail time in the United States. But officials in the Trump administration have decided to send a message that these migrants will be treated differently, even those who show up seeking the protection of political asylum.
These asylum-seekers are typically people who fear returning to their home country due to gang violence or other persecution. They come to the United States as an act of desperation, hoping to spare their children from terrible fates.
America is a land of law and order! You want to come to this country you had better follow the law otherwise you will be deported! Simple as that!
First and foremost we should care about our OWN citizens and not foreigners [PERIOD] And as correctly stated those kids should have been 'shipped' back to wherever they came from so that they could stay with their own families, instead of being kept here, feed by us, and having our anti-American xenophiles whine about it.
Unfortunately, those who made it to this country based on dubious asylum claims are now trying to close the door behind them and not let other refugees to come to this great country. America is the hope for humanity and the recent immigrants are on the forefront of that. You just need to come to places like California with its vibrant economy, innovations, multi-culture and diversity to realize the contributions of the recent immigrants.
Let’s Keep America Great!
Only if we iroonis had a Trump... A Trump who genuinely loves the land in which he was born and raised... Only if we had a Trump...
Ship all these people to Canada the land of freaks, trannies, and weirdos....!