Academics, academic institutions, higher education leaders and higher education organisations joined calls last week to condemn the forced separation of illegal immigrant children from their parents in the United States and the imprisonment of immigrant families.

Their demands added to mounting pressure nationally and internationally in a week where reporting of the impact of the policy caused outrage around the world. 

On 19 June more than 2,000 US academics signed an open letterto the Department of Homeland Security to protest against this “serious human rights breach” and President Donald Trump’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy.

The letter citing research around childhood trauma indicated that “separation from their families leave children more vulnerable to exploitation and abuse, no matter what the care setting”. 

“Traumatic separation creates toxic stress in children and adolescents that can profoundly impact their development and increase the risk of stress-related disease well into adulthood,” the academics said.

On 20 June President Trump announced that he was going to sign an Executive Order to stop his policy of separating parents and children as they cross the US border without documentation but would still imprison families.

Esther D Brimmer, executive director and CEO of NAFSA: Association of International Educators, said in a statement: “Organisations and institutions around the world publicly agreed that children belong with their families, not in cages. Today’s long overdue cessation of a horrendous policy to separate families is not a permanent solution to ending the atrocities faced by those seeking asylum or a better life in the United States. 

“Although families will no longer be separated, families will still be imprisoned.”

Brimmer said work to end the nation’s longstanding immigration crisis must begin, and that the work must hold fast to “our values as a welcoming nation”. 

“It’s time to be the country we say we are, not one that will make our children ashamed of our history,” she said.

The Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities (AJCU) joined the Jesuit Conference of Canada and the United States to denounce the separation of families and unjust treatment of migrants at the US southern border. 

On World Refugee Day on 20 June, AJCU's president, Reverend Michael J Sheeran, SJ, issued a personal statement on the issue. Since then, presidents, faculty and staff at multiple Jesuit institutions have issued their own statements.

In his statement Rev Sheeran said: “This year World Refugee Day falls in the midst of a human rights crisis on the US southern border, where people of all ages are being torn apart from their families. More than ever, we must not forget our moral responsibility and imperative to serve the neediest among us, and love our neighbour. We condemn the separation of families and urge for their immediate protection.”

There was widespread international condemnation, too, including from United Kingdom Universities Minister Sam Gyimah, who unequivocally condemned Trump’s policy, just weeks before the US president is due to visit the UK. “Separating children from their parents in this way is beyond dreadful,” he tweeted. “This policy is indefensible, pure and simple.”

He told the London Evening Standard: “I understand governments have to make difficult decisions and the area of immigration policy and enforcement is a notoriously difficult area. But surely you should look to enforce and deter in a way in which the most vulnerable, in this case children, are not put at risk.”

Harrowing recordings

Trump’s partial reverse came after harrowing recordings emerged of children who had been separated from their parents being held in cages and crying out for their families. 

Children and babies had been sent to ‘tender age’ shelters in south Texas and lawyers and medical staff who visited the facilities said they had seen rooms full of distraught children, according to a report in The Times.

A 10-year-old girl with Down’s Syndrome was reported to be among the more than 2,000 children separated from their parents at the border, the Mexican government said. 

But US officials, before Trump’s announcement, had insisted there would be no pause in implementation of the policy. Kirstjen Nielsen, the secretary of the Department for Homeland Security, said: “As long as illegal entry remains a criminal offence, [the Department of Homeland Security] will not look the other way.” She said the law demanded that if a parent entered the country illegally their children should be separated from them. 

Corey Lewandowski, President Trump’s former campaign manager, caused further outrage by scoffing at the case of the girl with Down’s Syndrome when it was raised by a Democrat advocate on television.

AJCU added their signature to letters to Congress from the American Council on Education (ACE) and the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU) to call for legislation that protects families at the border, as well as the 800,000 DACA students (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, known as DREAMers). 

The ACE letter noted that last year more than 800 college and university presidents urged lawmakers to take action to protect DACA registrants, as did nearly 80 higher education associations. 

The DACA programme, set up under President Barack Obama’s administration, temporarily spared young people who had been brought illegally to the United States as children from deportation. The Trump administration is currently trying to close it down. 

Until that happens, DREAMers are the only listed exception to the Department for Homeland Security’s guidance, issued in February 2017, to prioritise the deportation of undocumented immigrants, following an Executive Order signed by Trump in January 2017, according to Time magazine. 

Fair pathway demanded

The HACU letter warned that the proposed Border Security and Immigration Reform Act does not end the Trump administration’s zero tolerance policy and allocates US$7 billion for family detention centres.

“Detaining families for a prolonged period of time is not an acceptable solution,” Antonio R Flores, HACU president and CEO, said. “Family separations could still occur because the zero-tolerance policy causes the separations. If a judge sends a parent to jail, his or her child(ren) will be separated.

“We urge you to consider legislation that provides DREAMers with a reasonable and fair pathway to citizenship, protects family unity, prohibits future separations, and ultimately has bipartisan support.”

As of 22 June, the House vote on a ‘compromise’ immigration bill had been delayed to this week.