As a matter of policy, the U.S. Government is separating families who seek asylum in the U.S. by crossing the border illegally.

Dozens of parents are separated from their children each day — the children labeled “unaccompanied minors” and sent to government custody or foster care, the parents labeled criminals and sent to jail.

Between October 1, 2017 and May 31, 2018, at least 2,700 children have been split from their parents. 1,995 of them were separated over the last six weeks of that window — April 18 to May 31 — indicating that at present, an average of 45 children are being taken from their parents each day.

To many critics of the Trump administration, family separation is an unpardonable atrocity. Articles depict children crying themselves to sleep because they don’t know where their parents are; one Honduran man killed himself in a detention cell after his child was taken from him.

Alabama State University students weighed in on their feelings regarding the issue.

“There’s a reason behind this. Despite the fact that these people came here illegally, there is no reason to separate them from their children,” said junior marketing major Larry Brown who believes that this detainment of children is being used to distract the population from something else. “It’s not a good reason but it’s a reason. The separation will have a negative impact on these kids for the rest of their lives but the government doesn’t broadcast that.”

Due to President Donald Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy, the parents of these children are being labeled as criminals and sent to jail leaving their children behind.

A sophomore accounting major Abraham Adesipe from Houston expressed his opinion about the situation.

“If you get caught coming across the border illegally, they can do whatever they want because you are not supposed to be here,” Adesipe said. “These people did not use the legal process to come to America. I don’t see the purpose of taking them and separating them from their families, they could just send them back to their countries.”

Other students, agreed that the outrage over the separation of families at the border is being used as a distraction.

“I feel like they are using these children to set up a little army of sorts. In African countries, they do this same thing, take children from their families, kill their parents and train these children in guerrilla warfare. Overall, it is inhumane. I really feel like it’s a coverup,” said sophomore early education major from Mobile, Emmit Sykes Jr.

Agreeing with Sykes, sophomore English education major Joshua Wilkinson said, “He’s [President Trump] is all about improving the military so it wouldn’t surprise me if this was happening. This is Trump, he is unpredictable. White people would not ever be in this situation, if the roles were reversed.”

As the separation of children from their parents is apart of the Trump administration’s zero tolerance police, which states that anyone caught crossing the border illegally is prosecuted and treated as an criminal for breaking the law, the students were concerned about his lack of compassion for the people seeking refuge.

“My biggest concern is him not having a heart,” said Eddie Todd, sophomore mechanical engineering major from Montgomery, Ala. “But, I am not surprised. We knew his views on immigration prior to this election. It is just sad for the most part.”

“He doesn’t understand, he comes from money,” said Stanley Saint, senior computer science major from Nigeria. “It does not make sense, like majority of the policies he proposed earlier in his term such as ‘building the wall.’ He thinks it is the time of Jesus. I can’t wait for him to leave office.”