Taking Children

Though the cruelties of the Trump administration’s “Zero Tolerance” policy were unique, they were part of an American tradition of taking children from parents.

The United States tears families apart—during slavery, the wars against indigenous people, the war on drugs, and, today, at the border.

Trump’s family separation policy belongs to a much longer history of U.S. government forces taking children from families that don't match the American ideal.

Through slavery, Indian boarding schools, Japanese internment, mass incarceration, and anti-Communist wars against civilian populations in Latin America.