Your article about President Trump’s defence of an immigration policy that separates children from parents (US will not be ‘migrant camp like Europe’, declares Trump, 19 June 18) could have stressed the power of fear. Attorney general Jeff Sessions’ guidelines for granting asylum to immigrants is a gross injustice that is not supported by facts. He states that “…claims by aliens pertaining to domestic violence or gang violence perpetrated by non-governmental actors will not qualify for asylum”. My research documents how the false propaganda of fear is used to discriminate against people and harm some groups. Mr Sessions draws on sensationalised and false fear of immigrants, who have been pilloried by Donald Trump (as criminals, rapists and drug dealers), to deny them asylum as they flee very real fears of being murdered by spouses, organised crime and criminal gangs. It is unfortunate, illogical, and embarrassing that such “fake fears” are guiding our immigration policy and contributing to the suffering of thousands of women and children seeking refuge.

David L Altheide

Regents’ professor emeritus, Arizona State University

• I am a horrified US citizen. I urge all living outside the US to boycott it entirely. I urge you not to buy US products; I urge you not to visit or do business in or with the US; and I urge you to encourage family, friends and colleagues to do the same. It’s bad enough that the US has created the very circumstances that have forced millions of migrants to seek a safer place to live because their own countries have been ravaged by war, looting of natural resources and destruction of their governments. Now, the US is using the Bible as an excuse to take children from their families, deport parents without returning their children to them, and losing them in the system. Our Health and Human Services Department acknowledges having lost 1,500 children and, by their own admission, these children may very well have been lost to child sex traffickers.

Urge your governments to expel US ambassadors, and begin war crimes proceedings against the US for its role in this abomination. Anything you can do will be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Lea Sky

Albuquerque, New Mexico

• Donald Trump, by practising what is tantamount to child torture (No toys, books or playing for children in Texas cages, Eyewitness, 18 June) and by breaching articles 9 (separation from parents) and 22 (refugee children) of the UN convention on the rights of the child, has surely forfeited his right to his planned visit here next month. I hope that parliament will act swiftly to prevent him coming to the UK for the foreseeable future. Failing this, perhaps we should greet him with a cage rather than a red carpet.

Janet Fearnley

Farnham, Surrey

• Compare the US of today with the US of 150 years ago. Faced with an influx of more than 20 million migrants, the country was, in Trump’s terms, a “migrant camp”. Indeed, most of its current population is from migrant stock. The US chose not to cage them but developed Ellis Island to facilitate their entry into the country. This was a huge success for the migrant population and the US itself. But it was also a disaster for the Native American and black slave populations. Perhaps matters would have worked out much better for them if there had been more stringent immigration controls applied in 1870.

Ray Perham

Ilford, Essex

• “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore.”

Kate Francis

Hayes, Middlesex

• Transitioning from unipolarity (Europe and North America need to stay united – now more than ever, theguardian.com, 19 June), Europe has only itself to blame for the emergence of international disorder. This predates Trump. Europeans slavishly adhered to a unipolar world. It was assumed that Washington always knew best. Now they are increasingly confronted by Washington’s unilateral actions, such as its withdrawal from the Iran nuclear agreement and its use of extraterritorial jurisdiction to punish banks and companies that do business with Iran. This should finally drive home to Brussels as well as London the perils of continuing with a unipolar world. It’s time to dethrone the dollar. Also, Europe needs to pick up the tab for a revamp of Nato so that it more faithfully reflects Europe’s interests. Could it be that Russia’s real crime is its advocacy of a multipolar world?

Yugo Kovach

Winterborne Houghton, Dorset

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