Lessons from Iraq should be applied at the southern U.S. border

After the attacks of 9/11, I accepted a diplomatic appointment to the Baghdad Embassy (2004-2005). As the senior State Department official dealing with the Iraqi Ministry of Justice I was responsible for the civilian prison system, one of which was Abu Ghraib. We divided this giant prison, with the U.S. military in charge of half and the civilian half maintained by the Iraqi Correction Service. I shall never forget the morning the two U.S. Army officers assigned to help on the civilian side came with sobering information.

There were abuses on the military side. It seemed like terrible news, but it wasn’t until I saw the pictures that I felt a pit in my stomach. I knew my job representing the American Embassy was going to be very difficult, even though it wasn’t on my civilian side of Abu Ghraib.

I knew we had lost the moral high ground. Some of my Iraqi employees were so disheartened they even said we were no better than Saddam Hussein.

This past weekend, I had a similar pit in my stomach when I heard the audio recording of children being separated from their parents at our own border. Just when I thought it couldn’t get any more sad, I learned that some parents were being deported back home without their children. There exists no protocol to reunite them once separated.

Some kids were transported to detention facilities on the East and West coasts. Since many refugees have no passport or birth certificate, they are given a number upon separation. The problem is the children are given a different number by a different agency. Nobody has a master list for cross-reference: It doesn’t exist.

I am frustrated by my Facebook friends who parrot the party line about, “Without a border we have no country.” Never mind the fact that our border with Canada is indiscernible in most places. Or, “The law requires separation of families.” No, the 1997 law made undocumented border crossings a misdemeanor (it was previously a civil matter) but says nothing about separating families.

“Oh, but if you commit a crime in the U.S. you’ll go to jail without your family.” That’s true, but in all my years as a prosecutor, I put a lot of people in prison, but I never once put their kids in jail.

I suppose it is just as well we have withdrawn from the U.N. Human Rights Council because we have once again lost the moral high ground. It’s Abu Ghraib all over again.