‘They broke the law’ a thin excuse for tearing migrant families apart

“They did break the law” is a phrase that is central to the argument behind how most people justify the increased actions the Trump administration has taken against immigrants. It is the phrase that has made it acceptable for many people to effectively limit undocumented immigrants from accessing the justice system, rip children from their parents, and treat a group of people that are integral to everyday life in America like they are lesser than.

So, how long are we going to let this argument push the conditions that immigrants face from harsh to outright unconscionable — and is it even as sound an argument as many think it is?

Under President Obama, “they did break the law” was used to back the relatively mild sentiment of why it was OK to deport Central Americans who came in a massive wave.

However, the policies that the phrase justified quickly escalated following President Trump’s election. In Texas, it drove lawmakers — including Gov. Greg Abbott — to justify their vote in favor of Senate Bill 4, a bill that both eliminated sanctuary cities and turned Texas into a “show me your papers” state. SB 4 also had the effect of scaring many undocumented victims of domestic abuse into staying silent and not reporting their cases to the police for fear of being deported.

More recently, that very same phrase has been what so many supporters of Trump seem to rely on when justifying why it was OK for the Trump administration to implement an immigration strategy that systematically and intentionally tore families apart. The effects of that policy were immediate; innocent children were forced to face the trauma of living in a detention facility without their parents present. Further, the parents also bore extreme emotional strains from the trauma of being forcibly separated from their family members. These strains drove an undocumented immigrant from Honduras to take his own life after he was separated from his family.

Presumably, most people who rely on “they broke the law” never intended for that phrase to justify a policy that led to a man’s suicide — but the fact that it did must drive us to question whether “they broke the law” is a sound argument.

Let’s say that tomorrow Congress approved a law that automatically sentenced anyone who stole food to a year of prison. This law would likely disproportionately impact people who stole food out of necessity — and although those people did technically break the law, are their actions reprehensible enough to warrant a year in jail? Most would agree that they are likely not reprehensible enough for that extreme of a punishment.

The plight of an undocumented immigrant seeking asylum should be viewed similarly. Asylum seekers face dire circumstances in their home countries that many Americans will never fully be able to understand. Their lives were in danger — and out of desperation to keep themselves and their family alive, they came to the United States. They are not violent criminals; they are just people doing what anyone else in their position would have done to keep themselves and their family safe.

Did they technically break a law in the process? Yes. However, few would agree that as a result of a nonviolent misdemeanor offense a mother or father deserved to have had their families torn from them and their children sent to a detention center. Despite the Trump administration recently compromising on the issue of separating families, the sentiment that allowed this policy to exist in the first place will continue to support future policy decisions by the administration.

Perhaps “they did break the law” is such a popular argument because it is so easy to justify when paired with longstanding statements like “America is a nation of laws.” Although it is certainly true that America is a nation of laws, America is also a nation of extraordinary compassion — and that is a sentiment that we must let shine brighter than all others as we consider immigration reforms.