Do We Stand in Outrage or Complicity

During a court hearing, Friday, July 27, a government attorney argued that the court-ordered reunification deadlines to reunite children with mothers and fathers did not apply to parents who have been deported. Thankfully, the judge ruled that deported parents are included in the order. Health and Human Services Secretary, Azar, indicated that of more than 11,800 children being held by HHS, fewer than 3,000 were separated from parents. The rest are unaccompanied minors—, or so they tell us. He said about 100 of the separated children are 5 or younger. I call them babies.

I ask everyone reading this to consider if creating orphans through the forced separation of kids and parents, is humane.

Many of our country’s early leaders, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson for example, believed that it was not immoral to own slaves, or to break up families willy-nilly, just as we do today, with dogs, cats and now immigrants and asylum seekers. No country leaders in the world today would think that slavery or breaking up families, because they are immigrants, would be moral or legal under international law. Being raised in the Catholic tradition, I doubt that any Christian would think it moral either. And, not to leave out the balance of scores of religions in this country, I doubt that any sacred tenet would tolerate these blatant acts of treachery visited upon children.

Americans and their leaders should be reminded that crimes against humanity constitute deliberately committed acts as part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian or an identifiable part of a civilian population. The first prosecution for crimes against humanity took place at the Nuremberg trials, against perpetrators who separated families, children from mothers and fathers.

No one expects our government to commit genocide, but they intended and may have produced orphans. And, if this is what our leaders hope we should tolerate, we must say no! We must stand against policies that mirror the reprehensible acts of past leaders. Otherwise, as in every past barbarism, such as deeming children orphans by government fiat, standing mute is a moral failing, for which we would be personally accountable.