A Jewish call to end Family Separations- process is "dehumanization"

It’s Inhuman To Separate Children From Parents, Irrespective Of Immigration Status Editorial published in the Jewish Herald Voice

HOUSTON- Some of the most painful wounds of the Holocaust were inflicted by a policy of tearing children away from their parents, often never to be seen again.

This was done as part of a deliberate process of dehumanization that the Nazis forced their victims to suffer.

The United States of America is not Nazi Germany. Houston is not Hitler’s Third Reich. However, plans to build a new detention center near Downtown Houston for children, who forcibly have been taken away from their undocumented immigrant parents, has students of Holocaust history crying out: Never again?!

The planned detention center will be located in a warehouse at 419 Emancipation Ave., according to reports. The facility is needed, according to federal authorities, in response to the Trump administration’s “zero-tolerance” policy toward illegal immigration which, since its announcement in April, has resulted in some 2,000 children being taken from their parents as the parents are jailed and prosecuted for illegal entry into the United States.

Administration officials have said they merely are enforcing U.S. immigration policy – a policy that long predates the Trump administration. Doing so, however, highlights one of the worst problems such a policy creates and, thus, underscores the need for comprehensive, bipartisan immigration reform in the U.S.

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner has joined a chorus of state lawmakers, including Texas State Rep. Gene Wu, to denounce plans to establish a new children’s detention center near Downtown Houston.

“I don’t want in the city of Houston for us to participate in a policy that I think is morally bankrupt,” Mayor Turner told local ABC affiliate KTRK. “This is not about party, not about Democrat or Republican, nothing about that. It’s about valuing children.”

City and state officials have the power to block the new detention center’s opening. The center requires permits and must be licensed by Texas as a “childcare facility,” according to reports.

Children were forcibly taken from their parents during the horrors of the Holocaust. Too many bystanders looked away and allowed these crimes to happen.

Immigration status is no excuse to rip innocent children away from their mothers and fathers. Students of the Holocaust have the responsibility to press upon lawmakers and insist that the U.S. do away with this inhuman policy.