The topic of immigration has been weighing heavy on hearts as the nation watches President Donald J. Trump’s policy separate families at the U.S. border.
As images emerge of children being separated from their families, scholars and human rights advocates who study these issues refer to the president’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy as heartbreaking, immoral and, at the extreme, a “systematic use of violence.”
“It’s disgusting. It’s completely immoral and quite embarrassing because everyone is watching how we’re treating the most vulnerable people who come and seek asylum in our country,” said Dr. Susana Muñoz, assistant professor in Colorado State University’s School of Education. “Regardless of what policies say, there is a moral obligation to protect children at all times.”
Health practitioners, civil rights organizations and human rights groups around the country have called on the administration to end its latest immigration policy of separating children from families, and instead, find alternative measures to immigration proceedings.
Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, spoke out against the policy during an address in Geneva on Monday. His comments preceded the United States’ decision on Tuesday to withdraw from the UN Human Rights Council for “political bias” over other foreign relations issues.
“The thought that any state would seek to deter parents by inflicting such abuse on children is unconscionable,” al-Hussein said.
He continued: “People do not lose their human rights by virtue of crossing a border without a visa. I deplore the adoption by many countries of policies intended to make themselves as inhospitable as possible by increasing the suffering of many already vulnerable people.”
