What will we do to resist?

One day — soon, we hope — our children and grandchildren will look back on the current era and wonder what happened to make the United States lose its way. They will ask those of us alive now what we did to stop this downward slide, just as we have asked our parents and grandparents how they stood by while Japanese citizens were placed in camps or black citizens were denied their voting rights.

Without question, the current policy of the U.S. government to separate parents and children caught on the border will be viewed with disgust. Attorney General Jeff Sessions has instituted the family separations as part of his so-called zero tolerance policy of stopping illegal entry. He is doing more, too, dismantling the system that grants asylum to people seeking a safe refuge.

This affects not just new asylum-seekers, but tens of thousands of people here — many of whom will face death if they are forced to return to their countries of origin.

The American Civil Liberties Union is suing in federal court over the family separation policy, and that’s one way of resisting. We hope the lawsuit is heard on a fast track and a nationwide injunction granted before more damage is done. In Montana, a state Department of Labor employee quit his job earlier this year because he was asked to help prepare information for Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to use in tracking undocumented workers. He would not cooperate. Cities such as Santa Fe rightly decline to become immigration police; we welcome all of our residents. Other people are protesting, calling their lawmakers, taking donations to places where immigrants are being held. They are speaking up.

Our governor, Susana Martinez, is not one of the resisters. Perhaps her finest moments as governor came during the presidential campaign, when she criticized then-candidate Donald Trump for his remarks about Mexicans and immigrants. Now, like so much of the GOP, she seems to be falling in line.

Asked by the Albuquerque Journal about the new policy of separating children from parents, she said she supports it. “We don’t let people who break the law continue to be out breaking the law simply because they have children,” she told the newspaper.

That response fails to take into account that asylum-seekers are not breaking the law. What’s more, even if all of those caught at the border are jailed, the government still shouldn’t be allowed to take children from parents. They could be held in family detention centers together.

U.S. Rep. Parmila Jayapal of Washington managed to get inside a federal facility to meet with some 170 immigrant women, where more than a third of them had lost their children over the course of their migration.

The new policy is unprecedented in recent U.S. history, she claims. As someone who criticized President Barack Obama’s immigration policy, too, she has credibility as a witness.

“This separation of children from their parents is really a form of torture,” Jayapal told The Nation magazine. “These women have no idea where their children are.”

To that concern, the supporters of this policy have little sympathy. Their response: Don’t want your children taken away? Don’t try to cross illegally.

So simple, right?

Hardly, considering the conditions these migrants are fleeing.

If putting children in holding cells and keeping them apart from their parents were not enough, now the Trump administration is reportedly planning on building tent cities to shelter kids.

Facilities that hold children are at 95 percent capacity, so the government wants more space. Just think of it — children in tents in 100-plus degree heat in Texas, where some prospective sites are located.

This is wrong. The U.S. Conference of Catholics Bishops is condemning these actions, saying in a statement this week: “Families are the foundational element of our society and they must be able to stay together.”

Catholics aren’t alone. In recent days, the Southern Baptist Convention, evangelicals and noted preacher Franklin Graham have joined in the criticism — those are important, since these groups generally support Trump. Yet they, too, are resisting.

Now, what will the rest of us do? If we do not push back against this abandonment of the best of American values, all of us — not just the government — will be judged and found wanting. We must resist, and by doing so, change this immoral policy.