Democrats Demand Trump Reunite Separated Families

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Senator Charles Schumer of New York, the Senate Minority Leader, and Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California, House Minority Leader, co-authored a letter that they sent to President Trump on Thursday demanding that he immediately take steps to reunite the families whose children were taken from them at the U.S.-Mexico border under the president’s zero tolerance immigration policy.

Under this policy parents are arrested and taken away to jail and eventually go to court to face criminal charges. If they have children with them, they are taken away and put in child detention facilities run by the U.S. government. However, it has come to light that when children are forcibly taken from the parent who has been arrested, the parents receive no information as to the whereabouts of the children, and the U.S. government has no plan to return the children to the parents. It was expected that children would be returned to parents once they get out of jail but this is not happening.

The letter sent by Schumer and Pelosi on Thursday said they were “deeply dismayed” that the administration hadn’t started even trying to reunite thousands of children separated from their families.

In announcing the letter Schumer tweeted:

“While @realDonaldTrump signed an exec order on his policy of family separation, it does nothing for the >2,300 children who have already been separated. Today @NancyPelosi & I are writing him with one simple request: reunite these suffering children with their families.”

“It seems that the administration lacks a plan, intention, and a sense of urgency to begin reuniting these children — many of whom have suffered serious emotional anguish — with their parents,” they said in their letter.

Schumer and Pelosi are demanding the administration present a plan “as soon as possible” to reunite the children who have been previously separated from their families.

They want the plan that the administration comes up with to provide real alternatives to the detention of children.

“These alternatives to detention have a proven track record and are significantly cheaper for taxpayers than the artificially-prolonged incarceration of asylum seekers that only enriches private companies in the business of running prisons,” Schumer and Pelosi wrote.

The Democratic leaders acted after Trump on Wednesday hastily drafted and signed an executive order that said immigrant families could be kept together “where appropriate and consistent with law and available resources.”

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Leo Vidal

I am a lifelong Democrat with a passion for social justice and progressive issues. I have degrees in writing, economics and law from the University of Iowa.