A group of U.S. senators is calling for answers from the heads of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). At issue are the thousands of migrant kids the Trump administration has forcibly separated from parents at the border, with no plan on how to ever reunite them.
“We are deeply concerned by reports of chaotic attempts to reunify parents and children that have been separated at the border,” the letter to HHS Sec. Alex Azar and DHS Sec. Kirstjen Nielsen states. Donald Trump’s “hastily-signed order provided no clarity on how to reunify families, or how to handle families that have already been separated or new families that cross the border seeking asylum.”
Since then, the administration has yet to show us any plan on how it’ll reunite these parents and children, despite a judge’s order that all kids must be reunited with their families by the end of July—and some even sooner. “Furthermore,” the letter continues, “we are concerned that even as the Administration works to reunify families, it continues to deport adults and family members who had children taken from them—reducing their chances of reunification even further”:
The letter demands the agencies provide lawmakers with a list of separated children, a list of their parents and other adult family members, and a third list that links the two. Additionally, the lawmakers want a “detailed briefing” explaining how the agencies are working to reunite the families. Lawmakers stipulated the response should not include names or other identifying information in an effort to protect migrants.
The lawmakers, including Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, Cory Booker of New Jersey, Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, Ed Markey of Massachusetts, Tina Smith of Minnesota, and Bill Nelson of Florida, are also calling for “weekly updates and briefings on your progress until all families are reunited.” Those are answers the hundreds of thousands of Americans who took to the streets this past weekend are also demanding.