If separating children from their parents (who have committed a crime) is "child abuse", then our government is responsible for a whole lot of abuse. It's not clear what this has to do with ICE specifically.

Children are generally not separated from their parents when their parents commit non-violent minor offenses. Crossing a border is, at the least, non-violent. How major or minor it is is debatable.

The basis of your argument is wrong. What else ya got?

  Children are generally not separated from their parents when their parents commit non-violent minor offenses

Children are separated from parents every damn day in cases of neglect or endangerment. Hell, we get CPS involved when a kid is left unattended in a car or alone at home, or even if a home is dangerously unkempt.

Dragging children across two thousand miles of desert and multiple borders (where many die en route) is far worse endangerment.

> Dragging children across two thousand miles of desert and multiple borders (where many die en route) is far worse endangerment.

When compared to your cushy first-world existence, sure. Some might consider continuing to try to raise children in abject poverty permeated by narco-terror to be endangerment. As usual, it comes down to whether you think any random stranger from these countries is likely to be a bad person or likely to be a good person. I am happy that I see goodness in others, and I feel sorry for those who live the other way.

> Dragging children across two thousand miles of desert and multiple borders (where many die en route) is far worse endangerment.

Would you say the same thing about children dragged across the Atlantic Ocean on cramped boats to arrive at Ellis Island?

I really don't think "endangerment" is a reasonable description of this situation. Parents are doing it because it's what they believe is best for the kids, because conditions are more dangerous where the kids are.

When CPS gets involved, do we then keep the kid in a cold warehouse inside a fenced off pen, leave them to sleep on the floor with a space blanket, give them antipsychotics to sedate them, fail to provide them with soap and toothpaste so they become ill? Further, fail to keep records so they may never see their parents again?

This is literally what's happened to thousands of children. We don't know exactly how many. And before another person carelessly posts some sentiment about how this is okay, I hope you also take the time to do some real introspection.

anyone who thinks this is ok is inhumane. not surprising to see so many black-and-white people here though. "crime means you forfeit all rights forever and ever no matter how petty" is such a shitty, petty way to live life.

Applying for asylum is not a crime.

...at the port of entry, not in random places on the border.

do you separate children for jaywalking? or littering? because that's what the "crime" of "being illegal" amounts to. it's a misdemeanor.

so the next time you get caught speeding or get a parking ticket, remember that they could have taken your kids and sold them into sexual slavery. have a good day.

Your argument is pretty bad, but also, have you heard of prison abolitionism? It's a thing. We don't need the carceral state. The US prison system in its current form is a monster, arguing anything different can only be done from ignorance.