Monday while speaking in New York City, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee, said separating immigrant children from their families was contrary to Christianity.
She also called it “an affront to our values” as a nation.
Clinton said, “What’s happening to families at the border is horrific. Nursing infants being ripped away from their mothers, parents being told their toddlers are being taken to bathe or play, only to realize hours later they aren’t coming back, children incarcerated in warehouses and, according to one account, kept in cages. This is a moral and humanitarian crisis. Every one of us who’s ever been a parent or grandparent, an aunt, a big sister, any one of us who’s ever held a child in our arms, every human being with a sense of compassion and decency should be outraged.”
She continued, “You know, I warned about this during the debates and on the campaign trail that Trump’s immigration policies would result in families being separated, parents being sent away from their children, people being rounded up and loaded into trains and buses. And now, as we watch with broken hearts, that’s exactly what’s happening. And let’s be very clear, this is not happening because of the, quote, ‘Democrats’ law,’ as the White House has claimed. Separating families is not mandated by law at all. That is an outright lie. And it is incumbent on all of us, journalists and citizens alike, to call it just that. And so is the president’s attempt today to stoke fear of immigrants, not only in our country but around the world, by claiming that migrants in Germany are causing crime. In fact—I know not everybody pays attention to, or even likes to hear facts, but I’m still kind of devoted to them—in fact, crime in Germany is at its lowest level since 1992.”
She added, “Nor are these policies rooted in religion. In fact, those who selectively use the Bible to justify this cruelty are ignoring a central tenet of Christianity. I went to a lot of years of Sunday school. I even taught it from time to time. I’ve studied the Bible, both the Old and the New Testament. And what is being done using the name of religion is contrary to everything I was ever taught. Jesus said, ‘suffer the little children unto me.’ He did not say, let the children suffer. So the test of any nation is how we treat the most vulnerable among us. Laura Bush made that case eloquently in the “Washington Post” this weekend, writing, ‘this zero tolerance policy is cruel, it is immoral, and it breaks my heart.’ And she is absolutely right. We are a better country than one that tears families apart, turns a blind eye to women fleeing domestic violence, and treats frightened children as a negotiating tool as a means to a political end. These actions are an affront to our values, and they undermine America’s reputation as a beacon of hope and freedom in the world. So, yes, these are perilous times with no shortage of problems for us to solve. These problems transcend borders, and so must our solutions.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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