Letter: Immigration policy 'amoral, monstrous'

President Obama's administration did not separate children from their parents at the border: they detained unaccompanied minors who made the journey to the border and presented for asylum without their parents.

President Trump instituted a new zero-tolerance policy prosecuting anyone presenting at the border without a valid visa, even those following the legal process of petitioning for asylum.

It prevents immigrant families from approaching the points of entry designated for asylum requests, arrests them for the misdemeanor crime of not having a valid visa for entry, steals their children, jails and deports the parents, sends the children to detention facilities around the US, and refuses to give any information to either party or their legal representation. These were intended to be permanent separations.

Furthermore, once the administration steals the children from their parents. The only way they will see each other again, save pro bono legal representation, is if the parents agree to give up their rights to due process and volunteer for deportation without an immigration trial.

Trump campaigned on white nationalist policies. Supporters cloak this in economic anxiety, but it is just a politically-correct disguise for white fear. This policy, along with his denaturalization task force and discharging of army recruits offered a pathway to citizenship through military service, are white nationalism realized. This is amoral and monstrous. Supporting this is amoral and monstrous.

There is no justification for putting babies in cages.

Kim Cavill

Palatine