Women and children who seek to cross the U.S. borders illegally risk being separated by the American authorities. A proposal of imposing such rigid measures in an attempt to stop immigration is being considered by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The motive behind this absurd and inhumane plan is to discourage women who are planning to cross the border with their children. If the proposal passes, the new policy will allow the government to keep the parents in custody while waiting for their asylum hearings. Meanwhile, the children will be placed into custody with the Department of Health and Human Services.

What will happen if the policy becomes reality?

In order to get a picture of what will happen in case the new policy rule becomes reality, here are some numbers:

According to Reuters, during the last four months, from October, 1 to January, 31, 54 000 children with their parents were detained – that is double the number of trespassers caught the same period a year earlier. All those people will be affected by the new law, and thousands of children will go into protective custody with child services or foster care for an indefinite period. This means providing additional funding because nobody will be willing to feed, clothe and house some strangers’ children for free. And not only this new law will cost millions of dollars to the national budget, but will also inflict an irreparable psychological trauma upon the children who have just ended a dangerous journey.

Who is against the proposal?

Donald trump is giving both thumbs up to the proposal. What he wants is to do away once and forever with the “catch and release” rule. The new rule will allow the illegal immigrants to freely reside in the country while waiting legal clarification of their cases. The proposal, however, has some rigorous opponents, who are ready to take active actions to prevent the disastrous plan from happening.

Henry Cuellar, a member of the House of Representatives for the Democrats says, “Bottom line is that it is simply wrong to separate mothers and children. It’s with the kind of actions that we move away from securing the border and begin to violate human rights.”

Immigrant rights advocates argue that because of the violent and hard-up conditions in Central America mothers from this region should be given asylum status. Obama’s administration implemented a policy of keeping women and children at specially established family detention centers for no more than 21 days.