Why I resigned from the Department of Homeland Security

As a member of the Advisory Council to the Department of Homeland Security appointed during the Obama presidency, I squirmed at now President Donald Trump’s hostility to immigrants and refugees. His policies of refusing to find a path to citizenship for the Dreamers and mass deportations that ripped longtime productive residents of this country from their families and communities were inhumane and hurt U.S. citizen children and spouses.

I thought of resigning from the Council many times. But my belief that my presence might make a difference kept me from doing so — until I learned that the Administration was separating children from parents at the Southwest border. That policy reflected such depravity and lawlessness that I simply couldn’t associate myself any further with the Administration. I readily joined three colleagues on the Council who were planning to resign for the same reason, although I sent my own letter of resignation in addition to signing theirs.