This is with reference to the article “A home with a family is better than a mass camp” (July 10).

Glad that the Biden administration is treating the people from across the border more humanly and more humanely. But it still might not be enough. The report says that the camps house children that are 5-6 years old. The young years are the most formative years of a child. It is these years that primarily decide what that child will choose to be when they grow up into adults.

If they have seen strife and fear at these camps, it would certainly impact their perception of the world and they might create mental defences which in turn might lead them to a world of crime and drugs.

When adults are found with a criminal record, they are punished. But the deeper problem is ignored – the role of the parent and the state in molding the child that has become the adult of today. Most of the incarcerated people in the US are black and most will testify to childhoods riddled with abusive parents, a state that failed to protect them and to general poverty.

The children who have crossed over the border and who have been separated from their parents need to be treated with care and dignity and urgent attempts should be made to reunite them with their parents. This is Trump’s undoing and should any of these children turn to crime somewhere in the future, it should be pointed out that they had a horrid start to life in a country that boasts of development but that failed to treat them right.

Joyce D
By email