Democrats rail against separations

ELIZABETH/GENEVA: Democratic lawmakers joined protesters outside immigration detention facilities in New Jersey and Texas for Father’s Day demonstrations against the Trump administration’s practice of separating children from their parents at the USMexico border.

‘‘This must not be who we are as a nation,’’ said Jerrold Nadler, one of seven members of Congress from New York and New Jersey who met five detainees in a facility in Elizabeth, New Jersey, including three who said they had young relatives removed from their care after seeking asylum.

US officials have said nearly 2000 children were separated from adults at the border between midApril and the end of May.

In May, US Attorneygeneral Jeff Sessions announced a ‘‘zero tolerance’’ policy in which all those apprehended entering the United States illegally, including those seeking asylum, would be criminally charged, which generally leads to children being separated from their parents.

Administration officials have defended the tactic as necessary to secure the border and suggested it would act as a deterrent to illegal immigration.

But the policy has drawn condemnation from medical professionals, religious leaders and immigration activists, who warn that some children could suffer lasting psychological trauma.

In South Texas yesterday, several Democratic lawmakers visited a Border Patrol Processing Centre in McAllen to call attention to the policy, while Beto O’Rourke, who is running for the US Senate in Texas, led a protest march to a temporary detention facility for immigrant children near El Paso.

Some moderate Republicans have also called on Trump to stop the separations. Senators Susan Collins and Jeff Flake wrote to White House officials on Sunday seeking more information on the policy.

‘‘It is inconsistent with our American values to separate these children from their parents,’’ Collins told CBS..

Trump has sought to blame Democrats, saying their support for a broader immigration Bill would end the separations.

In an opinion piece in the Washington Post, former first lady Laura Bush, wife of George W. Bush, said she appreciated the need to enforce and protect the US borders.

‘‘But this zerotolerance policy is cruel. It is immoral. And it breaks my heart,’’ she wrote, adding the images were ‘‘eerily reminiscent of the Japanese American internment camps of World War 2’’.

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights called on the United States yesterday to halt the ‘‘unconscionable’’ policy.

‘‘The thought that any state would seek to deter parents by inflicting such abuse on children is unconscionable. I call on the United States to immediately end the practice of forcible separation of these children,’’ Zeid Ra’ad alHussein said in his final speech to the UN Human Rights Council before his term in office ends.

There was no immediate reaction from the US delegation in the room.— Reuters