Family breakup policy roils immigration fight
GOP, Dems spar over 2 bills that face uncertain fates
WASHINGTON — House Republicans could move to strictly limit the Trump administration’s policy of separating children from their parents at the border under immigration legislation expected to be considered next week.
But Democrats object to other parts of the package and say the administration could end the policy of separating children from parents at any time without additional legislation.
House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said Thursday that he disagrees with the new policy of splitting up immigrant families. He agreed with administration officials, however, that fixing the problem requires legislation.
The administration’s new zero-tolerance policy, which requires prosecution of people arriving illegally at the border, has driven up the number of immigrant children in government shelters in the nearly two months since it began.
That has led to a public outcry as stories of children being ripped from their parents’ arms fill headlines.
“We don’t want kids to be separated from their parents,” Ryan said.
“We believe because of the court ruling, this will require legislative change,” he said, referring to a 1997 court case that limited how long the government can hold children in detention centers.
Democrats and other opponents of the administration’s policy say that case is not the root of the problem, noting that separating families was the exception, not the rule, for most of the two decades since the case was resolved with an agreement called the Flores settlement.
The settlement does not require the government to separate families who arrive together, and previous administrations have not interpreted it that way.
Border agents had tried to keep families together by sending all members to the same family detention facility.
Under the new policy announced by Attorney General Jeff Sessions in early May, in most cases parents are prosecuted, while children are sent to a separate refugee facility.
On Thursday, a Health and Human Services spokesman said the agency will open a temporary shelter for unaccompanied immigrant children in far west Texas, as existing facilities for children reach capacity.
The new facility at the Tornillo port of entry will be able to accommodate up to 360 children in “the next few days,” said the spokesman, Kenneth Wolfe.
Asked if children will be kept in tents, Wolfe said the facility would have “softsided structures,” but didn't clarify what those structures would be. He added the structures will have air conditioning.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., questioned why Republicans haven’t put legislation forward already if they think it is needed.
“This is barbaric, this is not who America is, and this is the policy of the Trump administration,” she said, referring to the family separations.
Ryan brokered an agreement among House Republicans to vote next week on two immigration bills — a hard-line conservative measure and an alternative that Ryan and other GOP leaders have been negotiating with the many GOP factions in the House. Even supporters of the more conservative bill say it is not likely to pass the House. It’s unclear whether the leadership’s alternative can pass, either.
Democrats have been left out of the negotiations, and the bill, a draft of which was released Thursday, contains some provisions they consider unacceptable.
Other parts of the measure would enact policies that conservative Republicans have balked at.
“We won’t guarantee passage,” Ryan said. “I do hope this passes. I think it’s a very good bill. I think it’s a very good compromise, and this can make law.”
The draft bill includes $25 billion for border security, including money to begin building President Donald Trump’s proposed border wall.
It also would include a legal fix for the so-called Dreamers, young people who came to this country illegally as children.
The bill would provide Dreamers with visas that would allow them, after six years, to apply for citizenship.