views

editorial

Zero-Tolerance Policy Is Inhumane

O

n June 20, President Donald Trump
reversed his administration’s policy
of separating families seeking asy-
lum at the U.S.-Mexico border after insist-
ing he had “no choice” but to separate
children from their parents.
This came after wide condemnation
from weeks of heart-wrenching images —
children crying hysterically at being taken
from their parents’ arms, horrified parents
told their children were being taken for a
bath only to learn they wouldn’t be com-
ing back, toddlers snatched from their
parents and shipped across the country to
“tender age” detention centers.
According to Trump’s executive order,
instead of detaining children separately,
the U.S. will now imprison them with their
parents, perhaps indefinitely, for the mis-
demeanor of crossing the border illegally
(even though it is legal to claim asylum at
the border, as many of these families are
trying to do).
A federal court settlement known as
the Flores agreement prevents the gov-
ernment from jailing migrant children
for more than 20 days. It is unclear what
will happen to the children detained with
their parents if the president’s executive
order does not pass judicial muster.
Furthermore, the administration has
no plans in place to reunite the more than
2,300 children already taken from their
parents and staying in makeshift ware-
houses, such as the former Texas Walmart
that is now a detention center where chil-

dren live in chained-link cages or “tender
age” shelters sprinkled around the coun-
try, including in Grand Rapids, that the
media have been barred from entering.
Trump said his administration’s zero-
tolerance policy, which the attorney gen-
eral announced in April, will continue.

health. This type of prolonged exposure
to serious stress — known as toxic stress
— can carry lifelong consequences for
children.”
According to Dr. Collen Kraft, president
of the American Academy of Pediatrics,
the separation of children from their par-
ents is a “form of child abuse.”

THE RULE OF LAW

A bipartisan group of 75 former U.S. attor-
neys wrote a letter to Attorney General
Jeff Sessions, calling on him to end the
policy. The letter reads in part, “Your zero-
tolerance policy has resulted in the unnec-
essary trauma and suffering of innocent
children … We also emphasize that the
zero-tolerance policy is a radical depar-
ture from previous Justice Department
policy, and that it is dangerous, expensive
and inconsistent with the values of the
institution in which we served.”
The letter goes on to say, “As former
U.S. attorneys, we know that none of
these consequences nor the policy itself is
required by law.”
The United Nations Human Rights
Office issued a statement on June 5 con-
demning the zero-tolerance policy as
“arbitrary and unlawful” and a “serious
violation” of the rights of children.
The American Academy of Pediatrics
also condemned the policy, saying that
“highly stressful experiences, like family
separation, can cause irreparable harm,
disrupting a child’s brain architecture and
affecting his or her short- and long-term

THE JEWISH RESPONSE

Twenty-seven Jewish organizations,
including those in the Orthodox,
Conservative and Reform branches of
Judaism, spoke out against the policy, call-
ing it “unconscionable,” in a letter to the
president.
According to the letter, “As Jews, we
understand the plight of being an immi-
grant fleeing violence and oppression. We
believe that the United States is a nation
of immigrants and how we treat the
stranger reflects on the moral values and
ideals of this nation.
“Our Jewish faith demands of us con-
cern for the stranger in our midst. Our
own people’s history as ‘strangers’ reminds
us of the many struggles faced by immi-
grants today and compels our commit-
ment to an immigration system in this
country that is compassionate and just.
We urge you to immediately rescind the
zero-tolerance policy and uphold the val-
ues of family unity and justice on which
our nation was built.”
Detroit’s Jewish Community Relations
Council/AJC spoke out against the policy

letters

Greenberg’s View

continued from page 6

this president embracing the same
totalitarian tenets that 250 years of
American history have opposed. We
cringe as the “leader” of the Western
world appeals to attitudes and preju-
dices that have often made Jewish
people the prime target of heinous
policies.
Donald Trump’s very existence as a
politician defines our generation’s pre-
eminent moral challenge. We cannot
idly watch as his policies, his beliefs
and his cronies attempt the dismem-
berment of the Western liberal order
and of enlightened political morality.
Our politics must cherish a philoso-
phy of rectitude so that we become
individuals of virtue. We must nurture
justice so that our nation will prevail
over this depravity that is antithetical
to our ideals.
Our history’s martyrs and our
children’s future put all who support
Trump (especially those Jews who

8

June 28 • 2018

jn

reflexively mimic his party’s cowardly
delusions) on notice: This is not an
argument over tax brackets or social
policies. The essential character of the
nation and Western democracy is in
the balance.
No Jewish person should be under
any misapprehensions: Donald Trump
is an existential threat to Jews.
Over the top hyperbole? Martin
Niemöller’s famous declaration teach-
es otherwise: “First they [the Nazis]
came for …” anyone who looked and
then lived and then thought differ-
ently and then finally — for me.

Isaac Lakritz
West Bloomfield

CORRECTION

In “On The Front Lines” (June 21,
page 20), the list of executive pro-
ducers for the documentar y film
should have listed Jack and Annette
Aronson.

as well. “As a people who spent so much
of our history wandering between lands,
denied the rights of citizenship and the
protections of government, the Jewish
people have a unique understanding and
insight into those who are fleeing from
violence and persecution,” said JCRC/AJC
President Alicia Chandler.
“When we see injustice, our tradition
implores us to protect the widow, the
orphan and the stranger. The current
zero-tolerance border enforcement policy
is a violation of our moral code.”
The Jewish News agrees with a state-
ment put out by the Network of Jewish
Human Service Agencies that “victims of
persecution and violence deserve no less
than a humane system that respects the
basic tenets of the rule of law” and urges
the U.S. government to “ensure humane
treatment at the border; help children
separated from their parents due to immi-
gration enforcement; and provide legal
representation to ensure unaccompanied
children have a full and fair opportunity to
make their cases and access legal protec-
tion.”
We realize the challenges created by
illegal immigration in the United States
are real and complex, and an overhaul of
U.S. immigration law by Congress is long
overdue. The eventual solution, how-
ever, must align with the longstanding
American value of compassion and our
country’s proud history of being a wel-
coming land of opportunity. •

