More than 600 alums from Berkeley Preparatory School in Tampa, Florida have come together to speak out against the actions of their fellow alumna — Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen.

The response comes as a direct response to Secretary Nielsen's involvement and support of President Donald Trump's "zero tolerance" border policy, which has resulted in the separation of more than 2,000 migrant children from their parents.

Although President Trump signed an executive order ending his own policy on June 20, his new order will detain entire families together, and many, including Amnesty International, have expressed their concern regarding how long the potential family detentions could last. As reported by The New York Times, the new order could potentially change a previous decree that limits how long children can be held. With the change mentioned in Trump's executive order, the detentions could possibly be indefinite. The executive order does not specify how or if the children who have already been separated will be reunited with their parents; it is not clear if any government department has a unified protocol in place to reconnect families, either.

Prior to Trump's executive order, Megan Magray and Katie Shane had felt it was their duty as former Berkley Preparatory students to speak out. After watching Secretary Nielsen's appearance at a White House press briefing on Monday (June 18), they realized there was an urgency to their action. "It wasn’t until right before the press conference, that we collectively realized Kirstjen had just become the face of family separation at the border and we had to act immediately," Megan told Teen Vogue. She credits her fellow classmate Reuben Siegman with creating a Facebook chat comprised of former Berkeley students, who decided to pen an open letter that decried Nielsen’s actions.

In a matter of hours, more than 600 former students backed the letter. "We have over 600 signatures including representatives from over 20 consecutive years of graduating classes, of all different political ideologies, and going back as far as the class of 1969," Megan said. "A former headmaster even signed on. To put things in perspective: there were 120 people in our graduating class. So for the Berkeley community, this is a lot of people." Along with asking for signatures, the former students have also asked for monetary donations for those affected by the family separation. They have raised $10,000 and are hoping to reach $25,640, which is the cost of a year of tuition at Berkeley.

The letter, Katie explained, was an easy way to make their voices heard. “We know the practice of separating children from their parents is undeniably cruel, as well as severely traumatizing for the child," the letter reads. "The quality of life in detention facilities only magnifies that suffering.” Additionally, the letter disavows the alumni’s former classmate, writing, “Given the facts at hand, we do not have faith in Secretary Nielsen to live the values of our alma mater or to make any decisions concerning outcomes for children at the border.”

Katie told Teen Vogue she’s disappointed in Secretary's Nielsen's support of family separation. "I grew up at Berkeley," she said. "My relatives teach there. Many of my classmates’ parents were my teachers. It’s a family and it was instilled in me by administrators and educators alike to care for my community and care for others. Knowing that Kirstjen was taught the same things, by many of the same people, it’s been jolting to observe her from afar now."