Former first lady Laura Bush tore into the Trump administration for separating migrant families at the border, calling the “zero tolerance” policy “cruel” and “immoral.”Bush
penned an op-ed for the Washington Post, which was published Sunday night
as public outcry over the hundreds of children in detention centers intensified.“I live in a border state,” Bush wrote. “I appreciate the need to enforce and protect our international boundaries, but this zero-tolerance policy is cruel. It is immoral. And it breaks my heart.”Bush’s commentary comes as more images and accounts from inside the detention centers have emerged, drawing harsh criticism from Democrats and some Republicans. Media reports about the centers described children being kept in “cages” after being separated from their parents, who crossed the border illegally
Bush wrote that the detention centers were “eerily reminiscent” of Japanese-American internment camps during World War II. Americans pride ourselves on being a moral nation,” she wrote. “If we are truly that country, then it is our obligation to reunite these detained children with their parents — and to stop separating parents and children in the first place." Attorney General
Jeff Sessions announced the so-called zero tolerance policy earlier this year, saying that the Justice Department would prosecute all adults crossing the border illegally, which could result in families being separated.