Dear Editor,

Children are crying, sobbing, weeping desperately for their parents. The children were pulled away from their parents at the border, separated due to a policy change. The current administration is charging all people at the border, even those applying for asylum, as criminals, which is a change in administrative policy.

I have worked in child welfare for a good part of my professional career, working to reunite parents and children who were separated from their parents due to neglect, abuse and drug addiction.

Reuniting broken families takes a good deal of therapy and work, and we are breaking families on purpose. The parents in these cases are charged criminally, which is a change in policy. In all the past administrations, families were kept together.

I cannot sleep for thinking of these children and the long-term effects of this deliberate breaking of families.

Child welfare works to keep families together, to help them, and to improve their lives so their children can come home. We are doing the opposite — breaking families who are attempting to improve lives for the children.

The children will be permanently hurt by this terrible practice. I have worked with children who were removed and I know how hard it is to resolve the problems caused by parental loss.

Please contact your elected officials right away to stop the practice of harming children. It is never right to harm children. Thank you for your help in saving children!

Jackie Downie, LCSW

Pinedale, Wyoming