Governor Charlie Baker (R-MA) has reversed his decision to send National Guard troops to the U.S.-Mexican border, citing President Donald Trump's policy of separating migrant children from their parents.
Baker called the policy "cruel & inhumane."
"We told the National Guard to hold steady and to not go down to the border —period," Baker said on Monday. "We won't be supporting that initiative unless they change the policy."
Baker also said he is "hopeful that with the voices that are coming out at this point and making that case to them, that they will consider alternatives to deal with border security."
"Border security is important — no one disputes that — but separating kids from their families is not," the governor added.
Last month, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that children of parents attempting to enter into the United States across our border with Mexico would be separated from their parents.
The president has been blaming Democrats for refusing to change the "law," however there is no law requiring the splitting up of immigrants and their children.
Scores of high profile Democrats and Republicans have publicly decried the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" policy.
In an op-ed in the Washington Post on Monday, former First Lady Laura Bush said the policy was "cruel" and '"immoral." Bush compared it to the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.
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.
Former First Lady Michelle Obama shared Bush's piece on Twitter, saying, "sometimes truth transcends party."
On Father's Day, former President Bill Clinton slammed the policy, saying, "children should not be a negotiating tool."
Trump's former White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci also blasted the administration's hypocrisy on their zero tolerance policy.
"You can’t simultaneously argue that family separation isn’t happening, that it’s being used as a deterrent, that the Bible justifies it and that it’s @TheDemocrats fault," Scaramucci tweeted.
Politicos aren't the only people slamming the administration's decision to rip immigrant families apart. Dr. Colleen Kraft, President of The American Association of Pediatrics, said the policy amounted to "child abuse" during an appearance on CNN.
“I can’t describe to you the room I was in with the toddlers,” Kraft said. “Normally toddlers are rambunctious and running around. We had one child just screaming and crying, and the others were really silent. And this is not normal activity or brain development with these children.”
Amnesty International condemned the policy on Monday, calling it "torture."
"This is nothing short of torture," the organization said of immigrant family separation.
