Lawmakers, clergy seek info on kids

It's a scar that may never heal.

Lawmakers and clergy members joined forces Wednesday to back legislation aimed at making the federal government more accountable for immigrant children detained in New York facilities.

The Separated Children Accountability Response (SCAR) Act would require state-contracted facilities to provide the public reports, every 15 days, detailing the number of children being held inside their buildings.

The bill also would require a report on the number of immigrant children forcibly removed from their parents' custody, and updates on efforts to reunite them.

"We are here today because we are a part of a nation that is losing itself more and more every day," said the Rev. Kaji Dousa, pastor of Manhattan's Park Avenue Christian Church and co-chairwoman of the New Sanctuary Coalition.

“Scarring children, kidnapping them from their families, removing their parents, deporting them while we keep the children is a practice that is as old as American apple pie,” Dousa said. “It's the same thing that was done to my ancestors and the same thing that was done to many of yours, and we are saying absolutely not."

State Sen. Brian Benjamin, who is sponsoring the bill with Assemblyman Harvey Epstein (D-Manhattan), said the legislation is necessary to clarify the number of people caught up in President Trump's controversial detention policy.

“This legislation will require that the provider provides the state with the number of children who were forcibly removed that are in their custody,” said Benjamin (D-Manhattan). “We need to know that number. I don't want to have to rely on Donald Trump's numbers. We all know he is someone who is not close to the truth.