Family reunification misses deadline

President Donald Trump’s suggestion Tuesday that the solution to the humanitarian crisis of family separation is that families should stop seeking entry to the U.S. is nonsensical. The administration has manufactured this crisis itself by adopting inhumane, unlawful and fiscally unsound policies. Its failure to reunite children under 5 years of age — toddlers — with their parents by a federal judge’s deadline shows the incredible toll this policy is taking on families, as well as the costly logistical nightmare it has created.

If the president is looking for solutions, he should terminate the senseless, wasteful prosecution of families crossing the border, some of whom have legitimate legal claims for protection. He should stop separating children from their parents. And he should not seek to incarcerate families indefinitely as an alternative to separation.

Archi Pyati

Tahirih Justice Center

Falls Church, Va.