The Guardian view on Donald Trump’s immigration policy: hateful and wrong | Editorial

Dividing migrant families is despicable. But the US president doesn’t care. Republicans up for election ought to

It is not just the current cruelty which should frighten us. The border separations are of course immoral and unconscionable. Children are ripped from the arms of their mothers; they wail for Papa without answer; they are caged. Even when the immediate suffering of the 2,000 already taken has passed, many will be affected for life by the trauma. For some, the divisions will prove permanent. Parents are being deported without their children. Last month, a father killed himself after separation from his family. Yet as the human cost becomes starker, the pace of separations has increased.

Amnesty International argues that these acts deliberately inflict such mental suffering that they constitute torture – inflicted not just on adults facing harsh choices, but also children who cannot make choices at all. The president of the American Academy of Pediatrics rightly calls it child abuse. It demonstrates Donald Trump’s willingness to wield his power in the most brutal and intrusive ways and to dehumanise the victims, fostering the “us and them” culture in which he thrives. Its inhumanity is matched by its mendaciousness. It is another step along America’s alarming authoritarian path.

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