I tried to avoid hearing the recording of the children crying after being taken from their parents at the US border. I could only imagine their despair and fear at not knowing if or when they were going to see them again. Tiny children, who had no way of understanding what was going on, were thrown into turmoil.

No wonder there were comparisons to torture. Vince had strong, but also salutary words:

Good to see government ministers speaking out on #TrumpConcentrationCamps. But let us not be too pious. British migration policy divides families and often deeply inhumane.

— Vince Cable (@vincecable) June 20, 2018

It is particularly galling to think that we allowed the Tories to introduce an income requirement for British citizens who wanted to live here with their spouses and children if they came from outside the EEA.

By 2015, this had amounted to 15000 children forcibly living apart from one parent. At least they had the other parent, but even so, this is far from humane.

Since we left the coalition, the Tories have unleashed the full horror of heir anti-immigrant ideology with their “hostile environment.” But could they do the sort of things that Trump is doing. The answer, sadly, is, yes.

Writing in the Metro earlier this week, Celia Clarke, the Director of Bail for Immigration Detainees, described how one man was detained when he reported to the Police while his partner was abroad for a family funeral and his children were taken into care. This was against Home Office policies.

A few weeks ago, a former client of BID’s who had been bailed and reunited with his partner and four children went to report as normal.  His wife was out of the country attending her mother’s funeral.  On reporting the Home Office official told our client that they were going to detain him.  He pleaded with them not to, explaining that he was currently his children’s sole carer.  They detained him anyway and the children were taken into the care of social services, in breach of their own policies and despite BID making representations urging them not to.  In another case, the Home Office sought to justify the deportation of a parent on the basis that the child had already been separated from his parent on several occasions as a result of immigration detention. In other words, they used detention to try and weaken the bond between a parent and child. Unlike the criminal justice system where an independent court has to sanction the incarceration of someone charged with a criminal offence, a decision to detain an individual under immigration powers is taken by an immigration officer and is not subject to judicial oversight.  There is currently no time limit on immigration detention in the UK and no automatic legal representation.

A 2013 BID study of families separated in this way makes for distressing reading.  There are going to be times when someone has committed a crime that is so horrible, and are a continuing danger to the community if they are not detained, but this should be extremely rare. The stories in the report are awful – including a woman being detained for months on end while her sick father couldn’t cope with her children, fell ill and had to be cared for by her daughter, who missed her GCSEs. That simply should not happen. That woman eventually won her immigration appeal and it did happen under our watch. To be fair, Labour weren’t much better either, but that, frankly, is no excuse.

At this year’s Autumn Conference, we’ll have a chance to make a fair immigration system that treats those who have to deal with it with dignity and respect. As we’ve discussed on here many times, a working group is drawing up a paper which will be published shortly. I am very much of the opinion that the Home Office needs dismantling and the whole thing started again with a humane and respectful culture that presumes against separating families unless there is an extremely good reason.

Lib Dem Immigrants are on the case already, tweeting to the chair of the working group:

Dear @AdamPritchard82, do please make sure the WG takes note of this when considering if the Borders Agency need more funding or (as we suggest) need reconstituting as a police force with the oversight and accountability that implies. https://t.co/LCz3AmEPq2

— Lib Dem Immigrants (@LDImmigrants) June 24, 2018

As far as I’m concerned, any immigration system needs to inspire the confidence of those who have to use it and those who advocate on their behalf. It should also provide a means of challenging decisions – and that means access to Legal Aid.

That is the standard to which I will be judging the policy paper when it is published.

* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings