Immigrant family separations draw Democrats to the Mexican border
MCALLEN, Texas – Democrats escalated their attacks on President Donald Trump’s policy of separating immigrant children from parents who illegally cross the Mexican border, as public outrage over the practice balloons into an election-year controversy for Republicans.
Several Democratic lawmakers, including Sens. Jeff Merkley of Oregon and Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, were in the Rio Grande Valley area in Texas Sunday to meet with U.S. border authorities and tour a former Walmart store that’s been converted into a detention center for nearly 1,500 immigrant boys.
Rep. Beto O’rourke, D-texas, challenging Republican Sen. Ted Cruz in November, planned to visit a new facility opened near El Paso he described as a “tent city.”
“I’d like to say it’s un-american, but it’s happening right now in America. And it’s on all of us – not just the Trump administration – it’s on all of us,” O’rourke said Sunday on CNN’S “State of the Union.” “I hope to produce the outrage and the public pressure to force those in power to do the right thing.”
Trump has refused to accept responsibility for the family separation policy, which administration Rep. Beto O’rourke, D-texas, speaks during a town hall meeting at Texas Southern University in Houston, Texas on March 22.
officials say is intended to deter undocumented immigrants from traveling to the U.S. border with their children.
The president instead has repeatedly blamed the policy on Democrats, citing an unspecified law that he says requires children to be taken from parents who cross the border illegally.
White House officials are unable to cite any part of U.S. law that dictates the separations, which began in April after Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced “zero tolerance” for unlawful border crossings. Republicans in Congress and the
administration have relied on a 1997 court settlement regarding the treatment of immigrant children in federal custody for legal justification.
The U.S. separated about 1,995 children from their parents and detained them between midapril and May 31, according to the Office of Refugee Resettlement at the Department of Health and Human Services, which is responsible for their care. Sen. Susan Collins, R-maine, said Sunday the number “may well be higher.”
On Friday, Trump hinted in a Twitter post that the policy is intended as political leverage to force Democratic lawmakers to agree to changes to immigration law containing elements they oppose, including the construction of a wall on the U.s.-mexico border.
“The Democrats are forcing the breakup of families at the Border with their horrible and cruel legislative agenda,” Trump said on Twitter. “Any Immigration Bill MUST HAVE full funding for the Wall, end Catch & Release, Visa Lottery and Chain, and go to Merit Based Immigration. Go for it! WIN!”
Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway said Sunday on NBC’S “Meet the Press” that she “very forcefully” objected to the implication that Trump sought to use immigrant children as a bargaining chip, even though the president himself suggested it. “I certainly don’t want anybody to use these kids as leverage,” she said.
U.S. religious leaders have castigated the policy.
The Rev. Franklin Graham, who’s usually a Trump ally, told the Christian Broadcasting Network that it’s “disgraceful, it’s terrible, to see families ripped apart, and I don’t support that one bit.” Daniel Dinardo, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said that “separating babies from their mothers is not the answer and is immoral.”