Is this now who we are?

It's pretty hard not to see the insidious racism driving the Trump administration's zero tolerance immigration policy, now manifesting at our southern border.

The horrific images of traumatized children and their distraught parents speak for themselves. These are not members of violent drug cartels seeking to wreak havoc in the United States. They are by and large very poor refugees that have fled violence and poverty from their home countries in Latin America, seeking asylum in the "land of freedom and opportunity." They arrive confused, frightened and are instead greeted as violent criminals.

You don't need to be a child care expert to predict the irreparable harm caused by separating children from their parents and placing them in confinement. The minor modification of the policy to allow families to remain intact while in detention offers little comfort to the thousands of already affected families.

I wonder if Mr. Trump is aware there are reportedly 30,000-plus undocumented Irish living in his home state of New York? There are also reportedly thousands of undocumented Asians and Europeans residing within our borders. It appears that the Trump Administration's zero tolerance immigration policy targets only illegal immigration from Latin America. Apparently illegally entering the United States while being brown and Spanish speaking requires only the most forceful of punitive measures, and with that a special kind of cruelty.

Greg Newlin

Naperville