5 lawmakers head to border

Esty, Blumenthal, others to inspect child detention centers in Texas

WASHINGTON — Images and soundbites of screaming immigrant children housed in detention centers captured news headlines and spurred an outcry from churches and public officials, and now five Connecticut lawmakers will see the facilities themselves.

Democratic Reps. Elizabeth Esty, Jim Himes, Rosa DeLauro and Joe Courtney will head to the southern border of Texas on Saturday to scope out the child detention centers that hold more than 2,300 children separated from their parents under President Trump’s “zero-tolerance” policy.

Since Trump signed an executive order Wednesday to end family separation, lawmakers are demanding the administration go one step further to reunite the children with their parents.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., will join the Connecticut lawmakers on a separate trip to the border this weekend. Blumenthal visited a detention facility in El Paso, Texas, on Friday, saying the journey was “very moving and enlightening.”

“I continue to be haunted by the eyes of a 2-year-old girl in the arms of her father in a detention facility,” Blumenthal said Friday. The two had traveled through Mexico and were uncertain if they would be separated, he said.

He added that it costs about $2,000 to house a child in a detention facility per day — an “enormous” price tag that could skyrocket because children are housed in detention facilities indefinitely.

The trip comes after a chaotic week on Capitol Hill. The House rejected a conservative-leaning immigration bill Thursday and postponed debate about a more moderate piece of legislation until next week — a move lawmakers said would allot time to better understand the legislation and possibly win more votes for it.

The “compromise” bill would provide a pathway to citizenship for “DREAMers” who won legal status here under Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. The legislation would also provide $25 billion to fund a border wall.

Believing next week’s bill won’t pass, Democratic lawmakers are shifting their focus to Trump’s zero-tolerance policy and saying Democrats, who are in the minority, will demand a clearcut method to reconnect immigrant families.

The lawmakers said they’re concerned that children who have already been separated won’t have any means of finding their parents again, especially toddlers and babies.

Connecticut currently holds two immigrant children who were separated from their parents, Fox61 News reported. Over the past month, officials at the Department for Homeland Security said more than 2,300 immigrant families were split at the border.

Esty said visiting the border will help her put the soundbites and images she saw of detention centers into context to better prepare her for debate in the House. She said borders shouldn’t be completely open, but lawmakers should work across the aisle to ensure immigrant families are welcomed instead of detained.

“There is nothing like seeing with your own eyes, and seeing the circumstances will help inform my efforts in Congress,” she said.

Himes said he wants to verify whether children are treated fairly in the detention centers after rumors floated around about alleged cases of abuse.

Visiting the spaces could create a more convincing argument for immigration reform and crafting a pathway to citizenship for DREAMers, he said. Trump ordered cancellation of the program last year.

Meanwhile in Hartford, Sen. Chris Murphy, DConn., organized a rally of roughly 300 people Thursday evening to protest Trump’s zero tolerance policy.