The immigration laws of the United States and their application should be effective in promoting safety and preventing chaos. The laws and their implementation should be reasonable, consistent with the spirit and interests of our country and, above all, humane.

President Donald Trump’s recent zero tolerance policy at the U.S. border with Mexico checks none of these boxes. Under intense public pressure, the president last week discontinued the policy, which had seen the separation of more than 2,300 children from their families since May.

Separating parents from their children could be defended on legal grounds: the parents are charged with a crime for alleged illegal entry into the country and are held awaiting trial; the children are charged with no crime and cannot be jailed with their parents.

But the practice is a clear example of how laws can needlessly harm people when they are applied thoughtlessly and ruthlessly.

President Trump’s twisted motivation for implementing zero tolerance exacerbated the crime. He wielded it as a tool to deter illegal immigrants and to gain leverage against his opponents on immigration policy.

Using children as pawns for political gain is something to be expected of rogue nations and terrorists, not from the president of the United States.

Our country should be a bastion of human rights and liberty, not a place where families are torn apart for political expediency.

The nightmare continues for many of the migrant children, who are still held in prison-like conditions while they await reunion with their parents. The harm cuts many ways for the children, their families, our worldwide reputation as a leader and our collective conscience. It raises the shameful ghosts of internment camps for Japanese Americans during World War II.

Now, the nation is in damage control mode, but the first objective should be to reunite the families as quickly as possible.

Then, those who take a sensible approach to immigration policy must defy the president’s daft, half-baked ideas and formulate reasonable approaches: no walls, and no systematic separation of families.

The lives of thousands of children, as well as our nation’s integrity, depend on it.
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