In recent weeks, the Trump Administration has disturbingly begun a systematic separation of children, including infants and toddlers as young as 18 months, from their parents when they cross our border.
In recent testimony before Congress, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) reported that 658 children were taken from their parents over just 14 days last month. Many of these separated families enter the country seeking legal asylum from persecution in their home country and immediately report themselves to border patrol agents.
As a parent, I can't imagine anything more horrifying than having my children taken away and held in a mass detention center. It is painful to read stories of mothers hearing their children scream for them as the Border Patrol agents pull them away, including one particularly devastating account of a mother having her child removed from her while she was breastfeeding.