Secretary Nielsen has abused her power to mistreat refugees and hide girls and babies in an attempt to prevent press coverage of their locations, treatment, and living conditions. Secretary Nielsen has allowed children to be traumatized and abused and done absolutely nothing to stop it, even admitting she has no idea what is happening on her watch. This is a gross abuse of power and an abdication of her responsibilities as head of Homeland Security. There is no excuse, she must resign.

Bright Horizons is the biggest provider of early childhood education in the world. Its investors include Bain Capital, and it is a huge, publicly traded company. As a parent of a toddler enrolled at a Bright Horizons Center, I know they have world class expertise in early childhood development. I strongly feel that Bright Horizons should take a stand against the forcible separation of parents and children, declaring it to be the torture that it is.

Stephen Miller has stated that on immigration President Trump "has unlimited powers that will not be questioned" and that the policy of separating families at the border was "a simple decision". Anyone with empathy or any respect for humanity and families can see the impact of this policy on the children and their parents.

Kidnapping in the name of the citizens of this country (as is actively happening at our southern border) cannot go unchallenged. Fox News, rather than telling the truth, actively supports the unconscionable separation of parents and children. This constitutes not only kidnapping when kids are not reunited with parents before they are deported, it is also child endangerment and permanent psychological child abuse. If advertisers do not pull their ads, they then are complicit in this crime against humanity. All people of good conscience are affected by this situation.

Stop this inhumane and barbaric zero tolerance policy immediately

In recent days, members of Congress and the media have exposed the Trump Administration's cruel and inhumane policy to separate children from their parents and detain them in prison-like facilities. The United Nations has said that these policies are abusive. Pediatricians across the country have said that the children being held in cages could suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder for the rest of their lives. Faith leaders across the country have condemned the policies and say they violate scripture and biblical laws. DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen oversaw the implementation of these policies and should resign immediately. She has violated the public trust and we have no confidence that she can continue to serve in her position and uphold her oath to the Constitution and the American people. Children don’t belong in cages and they shouldn’t be separated from their families. Secretary Nielsen should resign immediately and the Trump Administration should end their policy of keeping children apart from their families.

As a parent, I cannot sit idly by while the United States rips apart families and hides behind a fear policy to do so. Families fleeing violence and death in their home countries into the arms of the United States must be welcomed, and above all, kept together.

Although public pressure has forced Trump to modify the policy for now, families—including children—can be indefinitely detained in what are essentially prisons. There are also no guarantees that the families torn apart will ever be reunited. Stephen Miller has been identified by the press as the senior White House official behind this new "zero tolerance" policy and should be fired immediately. While other officials, such as Department of Homeland Security chief Kirstjen Nielsen, have been the public face of this policy, it is Stephen Miller who engineered it — and many of the Trump Administration’s other awful anti-immigrant ideas. Recently, the New York Times reported that “Mr. Miller was instrumental in Mr. Trump’s decision to ratchet up the zero tolerance policy.” Last year, The Guardian reported Stephen Miller was also the policy architect behind the Muslim travel ban. The New Yorker reported that he was responsible for ending temporary protected status for Haitian, Salvadoran, and Honduran immigrants already living in the U.S. Miller’s policies look like a page out of the white nationalist playbook — and that’s because Miller has long identified with members of that movement. He even helped white nationalist Richard Spencer raise money for an immigration debate at Duke University. Stephen Miller’s white nationalist policies have no place in America — let alone the White House. Children don’t belong in cages and families belong together. Sign the petition and tell the White House to fire Stephen Miller for his disastrous and inhumane policy of separating children from parents at the border.

I am a concerned tax paying American appalled by the policy of family separation introduced by the White House and this administration.

I started this petition because I care about children’s rights and we are currently violating their basic rights. They have the right to feel safe and be with their true caretakers. They are not responsible.

Separating immigrant children from their families causes permanent and irreversible harm. To quote AAP President Dr. Colleen Kraft, this practice “contradicts everything we stand for as pediatricians.” Let’s join together to oppose family separation and promote the health and wellness of all children.

I am Senator Kamala Harris and I am calling on Kirstjen Nielsen to resign as Secretary of Homeland Security. I am doing so because she has lacked transparency and for implementing a policy of separating thousands of children from parents along our southern border. Her numerous misleading statements, including denying this week that the government had a policy of separating children from their families at the border, are disqualifying. Let me be clear: our government should be in the business of keeping families together, not tearing them apart. And despite what this Administration is saying, there is no law forcing them to cruelly separate children from their families. For that reason and more, Nielsen has lost the trust of the American people and must resign immediately.