A federal law has been destroying families for 25 years. Let’s get rid of it.

Although the trauma caused by family separation at the U.S.-Mexico border has received widespread attention and outrage, far less attention is paid to the family separation that occurs daily throughout this country.

Every two minutes in the United States, a child is removed from their family and placed in foster care. Just think about that for a moment — by the time you finish reading this op-ed, another child will have been taken from their family.

“By the time you finish reading this op-ed, another child will have been taken from their family.”

Less than half of all children taken are ever reunited with a parent. So it should be no surprise that, for many people and communities, the child welfare system is widely regarded as a tool of family destruction.

This is a particular problem in Philadelphia, where children are removed more frequently than the national average, and at more than double the rate of big cities such as New York or Chicago. Family separation hits certain communities harder — for instance, Black children are 13% of the population in Pennsylvania but 26% of the commonwealth’s foster care population.

The driving force behind the child welfare system — often called the family policing system or family surveillance system — is the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997. Nov. 19 marks the 25th anniversary of this federal law, presenting an opportunity for deep reflection and critical action to combat the damage caused.

I agree with the growing consensus that we should mark the anniversary of the Adoption and Safe Families Act by repealing this harmful, discriminatory law for good.

Hailed at its signing by then-President Bill Clinton as a way to ensure children were not trapped in foster care forever, the Adoption and Safe Families Act encourages children in foster care to be permanently adopted by cutting kids’ ties to their biological families. Specifically, the act mandates that states must terminate parents’ rights if a family cannot reunify within requisite timelines, usually 15 months (as it is in Pennsylvania), unless certain exceptions are present. When parental rights are terminated, children lose not only their parents, but also their biological siblings, grandparents, and extended family. Too often, they don’t gain a new adoptive family, so they are left with nothing. Each year, 25% of children whose parents’ rights were terminated — thousands of children — age out of foster care as “legal orphans,” their ties to any family legally severed.

All children, including those in foster care, come from families. And all children’s sense of safety and security is entirely dependent on maintaining key attachments and family connections. While child abuse is a serious concern, the vast majority of children in foster care are there not because of allegations of physical or sexual abuse, but because of allegations of neglect — often a proxy for conditions of poverty such as housing and food insecurity, and inadequate medical care. Families who lack appropriate resources need actual help, not to have their children removed.

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Children should not be forever separated from their families because of poverty, and caring about the safety and well-being of children means caring about their family connections. We must reorient our approach to support children’s need for lifelong family connection. Children cannot simply “forget” ties to family; we must recognize the significant trauma, grief, and loss experienced by every child who is taken.

The Adoption and Safe Families Act was created with the goal of protecting children. But 25 years later, we must see it for what it is: a failure.

Let’s reimagine the concept of “child protection” to one that commits significant resources to preserving families, not separating them. Policy choices such as universal basic income, universal health care, and access to affordable housing and child care would go a long way in preventing child abuse and neglect. And for those children who must be separated from their families, child protection law must prioritize concrete supports for struggling families and flexible custody options such as guardianship, which could provide both stable family arrangements and lifelong connection.

More than one million children have been forever separated from their families in the time since the Adoption and Safe Families Act became law 25 years ago. For many of those children, the law was a disaster. We must repeal it to save future generations from the same fate.

Sarah Katz is a clinical professor of law at the Temple University Beasley School of Law, where she directs and teaches the Family Law Litigation Clinic.