Calling it a “litany of horrors,” the Atlantic has named the ongoing crisis of family separation the number one “unthinkable” moment of Donald Trump’s administration. His first two years as president have been such an almost-daily barrage of offenses that narrowing down to a single one seems nearly impossible, but as Ashley Fetters writes, the evil of state-sanctioned kidnapping stands alone.
“It is an axiom of moral life among civilized humans that to separate young children from their parents is an offense against not just nature but society, one of the building blocks of which—as the Republican Party, in particular, has long been at pains to emphasize—is the family.”
Among those who have been forcibly separated are vulnerable families, who, under U.S. and international law, have the right to present themselves at our border to ask for asylum. For following the law, they’ve had their children literally ripped out of their arms, as parents are thrown in one detention facility while their children are sent to another to languish in the custody of strangers.
”Forcibly yanking children from their parents,” Fetters continues, “is of a piece with some of the darkest moments of American history: the internment of Japanese Americans; the forcible separation of American Indian children into special boarding schools; slavery.”
It’s a crisis that continues. Despite a federal judge’s court order, children kidnapped from families at the southern border are still in U.S. custody, and border officials have exploited a loophole in that judge’s order to justify separating even more families. “I didn’t even have a chance to say goodbye,” said one falsely accused dad.