Letter: Separating children

Dawn Henderson's letter about the legality of persons attempting to enter our country with young children brings up a conveniently avoided truth about the sadness of separating kids from their parents at the border. Parents who break the law are very likely to be separated from their children.

I have been involved in working with inmates at the Coyote Ridge Correctional facility at Connell as a volunteer for some years. Not once have I heard an inmate express genuine sorrow for the inhumanity of the effect of their incarceration on their children. They have, however, expressed genuine sorrow for committing crimes which resulted in their imprisonment and separation from their children.

It's terrible that we have allowed our legal immigration system to become so overwhelmed that innocent children have to be forcibly separated from their criminal parents. But remember, there are many thousands of U.S. citizens who happen to be criminally detained who are also separated from their children, some of whom have gone into the foster care system as a result.