As humanists, we deplore the forced separation of children from their parents as is currently happening to unauthorized immigrants and asylum-seekers at the southern border of the United States. The trauma this undoubtedly causes to all involved runs counter to the humanist commitment to affirm the dignity of each human being, and is frankly inhumane. Attempts by the Department of Justice to rationalize these actions by quoting scripture is further enraging coming from what is supposed to be a secular government. As AHA’s former president and its current Legal Director David Niose writes at Psychology Today:

To humanists, the question is not whether the Bible can be used to lead a good, moral life, because surely it can if the decent passages are carefully cherry-picked. The real question is whether the Bible should be used as such. Just because commendable passages can be found, with the existence of horrifically misguided passages nearby, is it really wise to treat the book as, overall, a valuable source of moral authority?

Humanists call on the Trump administration to stop taking parents away from their children at the southern US border. These are people fleeing desperate and often dangerous situations—separating families only compounds their suffering and solves none of the complex problems we face on the issue of immigration.