From Angie Hoffman’s My Point of View column last week, I learned Freeborn County Republicans told visitors at their fair booth that separating families at the southern border is being done to protect children from trafficking. This explanation is false.

In mid-2018, the Trump administration began a policy of wholesale separation of children from their families. Even after that ended, more than 700 additional children had been separated from their families as of this May. The ACLU found that it’s often done for vague or unverifiable reasons.

The real purpose is to deter families who are fleeing violence in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador from pursuing their legal right to seek asylum in the United States.

Thus, the point of the policy is cruelty. The Trump administration has needlessly separated over 2,000 from loving family members who would care for them, inflicting lifelong emotional harm.

Children belong with their families, and they should only be separated under strict, documented circumstances as was used during the Obama administration. (This, incidentally, is the basis for Trump’s twisted claim that Obama started family separation, not him.)

Trump’s policies at the border are not protecting migrant children. They are making it harder for families to seek asylum. Imagine how desperate a parent is to get their child to a safe place if they travel to the U.S. border despite major risks, including separation. The Trump administration is doing everything it can to shut them out, including forcing people to wait in Mexico under the euphemistically named “migrant protection protocols.” Trump’s policies are meant to force people to remain in dangerous, unhealthy circumstances.

Seeking asylum is legal. If the U.S. is indeed the greatest country on earth, it must defend human rights, including the right to seek asylum.

Jennifer Vogt-Erickson

Albert Lea