Texas congressman Beto O’Rourke corrected a Trump official on Monday after she falsely claimed the administration does not have a policy of separating families at the border.
Texas congressman Beto O’Rourke corrected a Trump official on Monday after she falsely claimed the administration does not have a policy of separating families at the border.
Over the weekend, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen scolded media and advocacy groups on Twitter for “misreporting” asylum and immigration issues, ultimately concluding: “We do not have a policy of separating families at the border. Period.”
O’Rourke, who visited a migrant internment camp in McAllen last week and marched on a tent camp in Tornillo on Sunday, rebuked Nielsen’s comments on Twitter.
“You do,” O’Rourke wrote. “I’ve met moms held in cells w/ their young kids before you take them. Seen the kids behind cyclone fences after you’ve ‘unaccompanied’ them. Been w/ parents prosecuted like common criminals for doing what any parent would do, through tears asking me where their kids are.”
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During his visit to McAllen, O’Rourke said he met with a Honduran mother and her 7-year-old daughter who were going to be separated despite turning themselves into border patrol agents after a 2,000-mile journey.
The practice of separating migrant families began in April when Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced a new “zero-tolerance” policy prosecuting 100 percent of illegal border crossings.
“We are not going to let this country be invaded,” he said at the time. “If you are smuggling a child, then we will prosecute you and that child will be separated from you as required by law. If you don’t like that, then don’t smuggle children over our border.”
REPORT: Texas border agents tell migrant moms they’ll bathe their kids. Instead, they separate them.
During a six-week period in April and May after the policy was implemented, nearly 2,000 children were separated from their parents. So far, 11,423 migrant children are currently in custody, a Department of Health and Human Services headcount confirmed last week.
Beyond family separations, the zero-tolerance policy has also overwhelmed courts lining the border, especially in Texas, where as many as 70 immigrants are tried at the same time .
Fernando.ramirez@chron.com
Twitter.com/fernramirez93
