Illegal immigrant children deserve to be torn from parents, 'zero tolerance' backers say

I have been stunned by the outpouring of anger from readers over the Trump administration’s "zero-tolerance" policy of separating immigrant children from their parents after crossing the border illegally.

Anger, at me, that is, for questioning how this administration can use the Bible to justify this immoral act.

Over the weekend, we heard descriptions of children held in metal cages. We heard audio of children crying out for their parents. We've heard accounts of parents coming to the border to request asylum, only to be separated from their children and hauled off to jail.

Yet John, of Scottsdale, says the kids are probably better off separated from their parents.

“They're getting three meals a day, taught how to flush a toilet, how to brush their teeth, being educated, and going on field trips,” he wrote. “Seems to me they have it much better than they did with their parents, who couldn't teach them normal sanitation practices.”

Here's evidence of our compassion

Richard, meanwhile, thinks we are being compassionate in our treatment of these children.

“We feed them and put a roof over their head. Exactly what it says in the Bible! And if they (the parents) want to do it the right way, they apply in THEIR country FIRST before coming here and putting their children at risk!”

Count Ron, of Carefree, as a supporter of caging kids, calling Donald Trump “the most successful president since Ronald Reagan.”

“Americans, by a wide margin, are sick of illegal immigration. Trump vowed to do something about it, before the United States becomes Los Angeles. Good for him.

“Like most tax-payers, I’m weary of paying for the continuing swarm of illiterate, unskilled peasants pouring across our border. I'm equally sick of witnessing the damage done to our culture and our institutions.”

Obama did it, so it must be OK

Here’s Heidi, who thinks it’s important to make the distinction that these children are “ILLEGAL” and thus, apparently not worthy of much consideration.

“Your article was again biased and disgusting.

"One of your comments was ‘separate innocent babies from their immigrant parents’.  WOW Laurie this is absolutely ludicrous. These are not just immigrants they are ILLEGAL. Oh my, you just happen to omit that one word ILLEGAL.

“By the way, it was the Obama administration who put the children in cage-like surroundings.”

Indeed, the Obama administration did put unaccompanied minors -- who swamped the border after fleeing rampant violence and gang activity in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras -- in caged areas in 2014. This, as they worked to connect the children with their parents, many of whom were already in the United States.

So that makes it OK to take kids from their parents and cage them now?

They're 'illegal,' so it's OK

Of course, I did hear from readers who are properly horrified about what is being done in the name of the Lord. People like Ron, of Surprise.

"The Trump's administration's attempt to use the bible to justify separating children from their parents is disgusting," he wrote. "It was bad enough to adopt the policy, but even worse to turn to the Bible to to claim they are simply doing God's will." 

And a Catholic priest from Tucson, having read these readers' responses, emailed me on Tuesday to say that we are witnessing "a debasement of any type of moral standing for our country."

"When a president has to blame everyone else for this disaster, he knows it is wrong," the Rev. Tom Tureman, pastor of Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church wrote. " When officials contradict each other and make pathetic excuses for putting children in concentration camps, they know it is wrong.  And when you have Jeff Session quoting Romans 13, the quote used by Nazis to explain their destruction of the Jews, they know they are wrong.

"The terrible thing about the evil we are experiencing is that it is like cancer.  It spreads and damages everyone.  It is not surprising that people who have written these nasty letters have been so taken in by the sickness of what it taking place.  For those obsessed by the law, did they know that blocking the entrance to a port of entry for those seeking asylum is breaking the law. In the rush to hate and demonize these children I guess any type of immoral behavior is OK."

Amen, Fr. Tureman.

Sadly, the prevailing sentiment in my inbox over the weekend was cheers for the administration that rips children out of the arms of their parents.

People like Carlos:

“Those people you call, 'immigrants' are not immigrants, they are illegal migrants," he wrote. "They have no business entering our country by themselves or with their children. What happens to them when they arrive is on them, not us. We are a nation of laws and it is our duty to enforce them.”

God help us. Because we surely need it. 

Reach Roberts at laurie.roberts@arizonarepublic.com.

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