Laura Bush Rebukes Trump Administration’s ‘Cruel,’ ‘Immoral’ Child Separation Policy in Scathing Op-ed
Former First Lady Laura Bush did not hold back in her rebuke of the Trump administration’s child separation policy, calling the ripping apart of children from their parents “cruel” and “immoral” in a Washington Post op-ed published on Sunday.
“I live in a border state. I appreciate the need to enforce and protect our international boundaries, but this zero-tolerance policy is cruel,” Bush wrote. “It is immoral. And it breaks my heart.”
She continued on by comparing the separated children’s “shelter” to World War II Japanese internment camps.
Our government should not be in the business of warehousing children in converted box stores or making plans to place them in tent cities in the desert outside of El Paso. These images are eerily reminiscent of the Japanese American internment camps of World War II, now considered to have been one of the most shameful episodes in U.S. history. We also know that this treatment inflicts trauma; interned Japanese have been two times as likely to suffer cardiovascular disease or die prematurely than those who were not interned.
Bush’s remarks come on the same day as current First Lady Melania Trump also expressed her unease at the child separation policy.
“Mrs. Trump hates to see children separated from their families and hopes both sides of the aisle can finally come together to achieve successful immigration reform,” FLOTUS spox Stephanie Grisham said in a statement.
It also comes on the same day as Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen claimed the policy does not exist.
Read the full op-ed here.
[image via Getty Images]
