NY/NJ Democratic representatives spent Fathers Day at an ICE facility in Elizabeth NJ where several parents are being held after being separated from their children.
Carolyn Maloney (NY-12), Jerry Nadler (NY-10), Adriano Espaillat (NY-13), Hakeem Jeffries (NY-8), Frank Pallone (NJ-6), Bill Pascrell (NJ-9), Albio Sires (NJ-8) traveled to Elizabeth, NJ to view the facility and meet with parents detained there. Except for Pascrell and Sires, they are all members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.
ICE staff called the police on them.
Beto O’Rourke (TX-16) visited a child detention facility in Texas earlier today, and found that staff have no idea whether there is a system to keep track of parents and children separated by ICE, Border Patrol. This means no one is maintaining records to enable reunification. It’s entirely possible that the government ends up losing kids.
Sec. Kirstjen Nielsen, who heads DHS and is responsible for the ICE facility claimed the government is not separating families. This bald-faced lie was immediately contested by many.
The ratio on Sec. Nielsen’s tweet is remarkable. 27,000 comments, and only 3,000 likes. Along with Nadler, several others challenged Nielsen on her lies:
Meanwhile, several people have identified the different lies various members of the administration are telling about this policy of snatching kids from their parents.
Once we have resolved the immediate harm, we will have to ensure that all the people who implemented this illegal and monstrous policy face justice. They have grossly violated the civil rights of thousands of children with malicious intent. They should be prosecuted for this abuse of power.
Sec. Nielsen then tried to blame the press for “misreporting” the situation.
What she neglected to mention as she tried to shift the blame, is that asylum seekers are being told that they will not be processed at a port of entry, so they end up turning themselves to a Border Patrol agent elsewhere, and are then arrested for crossing the border. If this duplicitous policy sounds like something out of Kafka or Orwell, it should.
I’m happy my Rep. Adriano Espaillat was among those who visited the ICE facility to meet with the parents forcibly separated from their children.
— @subirgrewl