The Atlantic

Trump’s Immigration Policy Gets Its Moral Reckoning

The U.S. government has separated some 2,000 children from their families in the past six weeks. Over the past 48 hours, a chorus of influential voices, including former first lady Laura Bush, have spoken out against the practice.
Source: Department of Health and Human Services / Reuters

Outrage over family separations at the U.S.–Mexico border intensified over the weekend, with two first ladies—Melania Trump and Laura Bush—both weighing in, and tension escalating on the ground. The United States government has separated some 2,000 migrant children from their parents in the last six weeks, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

The Trump administration’s policy of separating migrants from their children has prompted a national moral reckoning, with comparisons to Nazi Germany and the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II, but the president and his aides have provided few signs that they will change course—despite the pressure, including from allies. The administration is caught between its need to secure the border and deter illegal immigration with the political,

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