CWLA is just one of a growing list of organizations, coalitions, groups and other parties who have spoken out against the separation of children from their parents. The growing list of statements include some organizations that rarely speak out on political matters. A small sampling of the organizations that have posted statements online: (non-profits): Voice for Adoption statement, Zero to Three statement, Association of Maternal & Child Health Programs statement, American Psychological Association statement, First Focus statement, Prevent Child Abuse-America statement, American Academy of Pediatrics statement, Children’s Defense Fund statement, Center for Law and Social Policy, statement, Lutheran Services in America, statement, Jewish Council for Public Affairs, statement. This is just a sampling of non-profits joined by some other unusual alliances and groups:
A group of over 70 Republican and Democratic former U.S. Attorneys, who said in part, “we have been horrified by the images and stories of children torn from their families along our nation’s Southwest Border. And like a majority of Americans, we are appalled that your Zero Tolerance policy.”
Pope Francis told Reuters “I believe that you cannot reject people who arrive. You have to receive them, help them, look after them, accompany them and then see where to put them, but throughout all of Europe…Some governments are working on it, and people have to be settled in the best possible way, but creating psychosis is not the cure,” he added. “Populism does not resolve things. What resolves things is acceptance, study, prudence.”
The Pope also referred to a U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops letter, and that letter joins criticism by some Southern Baptists and a joint letter by eight evangelical organizations. Over 600 members of Attorney General Jeff Sessions church issued a letter saying “We, the undersigned laity and clergy of the United Methodist Church, issue a formal complaint against fellow United Methodist layperson Jefferson Beauregard Sessions, by our understanding a lay member of Ashland Place United Methodist Church, in Mobile, AL, and an active participant in Clarendon United Methodist Church, Arlington, VA.”
According to a report by the New York Times, a number of airlines have also expressed concerns and have changed their policies. On Wednesday, American Airlines and United Airlines asked the federal government to stop using its commercial planes for transporting children who have been separated from their families due to the current immigration policy. Frontier Airlines said that they would “’not knowingly allow our flights to be used to transport migrant children away from their families.” United Airlines said it had told federal officials that they “should not transport immigrant children” who had been separated from their parents. Southwest Airlines asked that ‘anyone’ involved in separating children from their parents not fly with them.”