The following is a statement from Earthjustice President Trip Van Noppen:

“Families belong together, and they certainly do not belong in cages. Earthjustice condemns the Trump administration’s inhumane policy of forcibly separating migrant children from their parents. This policy should never have been enacted as it dehumanizes the most vulnerable among us and ignores the fact that every human being should be treated with dignity and respect. Migrants are fleeing desperate conditions in their home countries. They should not be denied their right to claim asylum, and the right to remain together with their families. Medical experts say that forced separation can cause incalculable health trauma and that toxic stress induced under this policy could impede brain development. Reports that children are being denied the comfort of human touch is tantamount to torture.

Our policies should reflect our values as Americans. The administration’s latest shift to force families into indefinite detention runs counter to those values. The cruel, morally repugnant policy changes are a violation of human rights and unfortunately reflective of some of the ugliest chapters of America’s history: slavery, internment camps for Japanese nationals and Japanese Americans and the forced removal of Native American children from their families. We are better than this. We call on all Americans to stand in alliance with migrant families and demand an end to family separation and indefinite detention.”