Split families: Comparison to felony arrests off base

Re: “Split families: Where’s outrage for citizens?” (TNT letter, 7/6).

The writer of the letter seems not to see a difference between assigning the care of a child to someone else in the community when a parent is arrested for violence against others or threats made against others (a felony allegation), and ripping a child or infant from parents who illegally cross our border (a misdemeanor not requiring full criminal prosecution) and request asylum.

In the first case, we do not send the child to another state and provide no meaningful way for the parent to contact the child, but we do these things in the second case.

The long-term adverse impact of such separations on the mental and physical health of the children is well known, and is a form of cruelty that characterized the era of slavery prior to the Civil War in this country.

A “zero-tolerance” policy, in such a vicious form, is unworthy of the country we used to claim to be, and may yet be again.

There are other ways to enforce our immigration laws and asylum procedures that do not trade on the suffering of innocents.