When does a law cross the line?
When it leads to protests? When it causes debates? When it hurts someone? When it violates what should be basic human rights?
What if a law is doing all of the above?
President Trump's "Zero-Tolerance" policy for illegal crossings at the southern border separated over 2,340 kids from their parents between May and June.
Family separation is unique to the Trump administration. Crying children were being ripped away from their parents' arms when crossing the border.
Some infants were misled into thinking they were going to be bathed. But once taken, they were not returned to their parents.
Detained parents have reported that after being separated they were not given any information as to where their children were being taken to. They were simply left to wonder and drown in worry.
Once taken from their parents, the children were taken to Customs and Border Protection facilities where they are held in holding cells. Some of these cells, such as the ones in a southern Texas warehouse, are literal cages made out of metal fencing.
Most facilities are reported to be in extremely poor condition, and there have even been reports of abuse and inhumane treatment.
From there, the children were sent to shelters or even tent camps. Most of them still are still there.
And even after all this was exposed, the president publicly defended this policy. And not only that, he lied and falsely claimed that this was because of the Democratic Party and that he could not do anything about it.
How could this be possible in 2018?
This is the question that most of the country asked itself for a whole month. The media constantly launched attacks against this law. TIME magazine's cover for June depicted the harshness of this law. The cover displays an unconcerned President Trump looking down at a crying immigrant girl. The words "Welcome to America" are the magazine's issue's title.
Many important figures also publicly expressed their concerned disapproval of this policy, including the president's family.
The first lady, Melania Trump, spoke against this issue. She's claimed it hurt her to see these separations and that she wanted these families to be together again.
Ivanka Trump, the president's daughter, was actively involved to help find a legislative solution to this issue.
And the problem was not only in the president's household but also in his own party.
Many members of the Republican Party expressed their disgust with these actions.
Steve Schmidt, an important strategist for the party, renounced his membership to the party because of the family separation law. He even publicly denounced the party for being "corrupt, indecent, and immoral."
The president kept being urged to fix the issue. And finally just last week, he kind of did.
On June 20th, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to end the separation of families at the border. The order allows for families to be detained together, without separating parents from their children, something that shouldn't have happened in the first place.
However, the problem still remains. There are still near 3,500 children who are separated from their parents and nothing is being done to fix this issue.
This is the next problem that has to be fixed and once more it may be up to us, the public, to push for a solution.
This period has once again tainted America's history with a dark stain and it is up to us to not let anything like this happen again.
Because let us not forget who the power really belongs to in this country.
