To the Journal editor:

President Trump called immigrants rapists, murders and “bad hombres” while campaigning. He claims they come here to commit heinous crimes and to take your job.

Never mind that facts show these rants to be false.

In border towns, crime has dropped and the flow of immigrants has lessened steadily over the years. Most of the current immigrants are actually refuges from Central America, families running from horrible violence in their home country.

They take the dangerous trek here to save their families. The MS-13 gangs Trump highlights often and claims are rushing here, are mostly growing from kids already living in the U.S., not immigrants.

Automation has taken the vast majority of our blue-collar jobs. Instead of spending … deporting and housing immigrants, we should be educating our children for the jobs of the future.

Ignoring these realities, Trump aides devised a plan to separate children from their parents.

Imagine the price of warehousing children indefinitely. There is no transparency about their treatment and no signals that Trump’s government thinks this is inhumane. There are much cheaper and humane ways of monitoring refugees, like ankle bracelets. Trump’s plan will create a generation of damaged children. Children can’t live in cages and not experience severe trauma.

What do we hear from Trump? He blames others for this decision, claiming he worries about these children. He could correct this if he wanted. But like the quote on Melania’s coat said, “Who Cares?” Not Trump and his administration.

Trump has blown this immigrant “problem” into an emergency regardless of the facts. We will waste many dollars and our reputation on this witch hunt.

This is a witch hunt right out an authoritarian’s playbook and could result in the deaths of many. It will work if good citizens ignore the facts and remain silent.