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During her testimony to a House committee Wednesday, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen continued to claim there’s no family separation policy, “contradicting her department’s own documents, former DHS Secretary and White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, President Trump, and plain reality,” said the American Civil Liberties Union, which led the lawsuit to reunite the separated families.
The fact is that, months past a federal judge’s reunification deadline, kids remain in U.S. custody, and Nielsen is still lying about it—and about a lot of other things. During her testimony, she also claimed that deported asylum-seekers had a chance to take their kids with them. “This is a lie,” New York Rep. Kathleen Rice responded on Twitter. In fact, a court filing from the Trump administration later that day debunked Nielsen’s claim.
”The Trump administration identified 471 parents who were removed from the United States without their children, according to the latest court filing in an ongoing lawsuit,” CNN reported. “At least some of those parents were deported ‘without being given the opportunity to elect or waive reunification’ in accordance with a court order in June 2018 that required the government to better document waivers.”
It’s a travesty that innocent children continue to be separated from their families while one of the people who locked them up remains in her job. As the ACLU noted, Oregon U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley has already called on the FBI to open a perjury investigation of Nielsen over past claims. Nielsen is still here, still lying, and stolen children are still separated. “Lying to Congress under oath is a felony,” Rep. Rice continued. “The last person who did that is going to prison.”