Wyden, colleagues intro bill to end ‘cruel’ separation policy

(Update: Adding Wyden bill)

Senator Ron Wyden, D-Ore., joined 31 of his Senate colleagues Thursday in introducing legislation to keep immigrant families together by preventing the Department of Homeland Security from taking children from their parents at the border.

“Children and their parents seeking asylum and safety in the United States should not have to live in fear that they will be forcibly separated once they reach the border,” Wyden said. “This bill will put an end to the Trump administration’s inhumane policy of separating families, which runs counter to American and humanitarian values and only succeeds in further traumatizing innocent children.”

The Keep Families Together Act was developed in consultation with child welfare experts to ensure the federal government is acting in the best interest of children. The bill is supported by the American Academy of Pediatrics, Kids In Need of Defense (KIND), Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA), Children’s Law Center and the Young Center for Immigrant Rights.

Earlier this week, Wyden led 39 of his Senate colleagues in sending a letter to President Trump, urging him to reverse this new policy, stressing the need to prioritize widely accepted standards of care that prioritize keeping children and families together whenever possible.

Additional cosponsors of the bill include Senators Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., Dick Durbin, D-Ill., Patty Murray, D-Wash., Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., Kamala Harris, D-Calif., Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, Ed Markey, D-Mass., Jack Reed, D-R.I., Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., Michael Bennet, D-Colo., Cory Booker, D-N.J., Tom Carper, D-Del., Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, Elizabeth Warren, D-N.J., Bob Menendez, D-N.J., Tim Kaine, D-Va., Angus King, I-Maine, Catherine Cortez-Masto, D-Nev., Bill Nelson, D-Fla., Bob Casey, D-Pa., Mark Warner, D-Va., Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., Chris Murphy, D-Conn., Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., Mark Udall, D-N.M., Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Martin Heinrich, D-N.M.

Citing the American Academy of Pediatrics, the senators in their letter stressed the short- and long-term damage to these children from being unnecessarily separated from their families, according to a news release from the Senate Finance Committee, which continues below:

Since Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced Trump’s so-called “zero-tolerance” policy, hundreds of children have been separated from their parents and are being held in detention centers and other institutional facilities. The Senate letter echoes the message of more than 540 state and national child development, child welfare and juvenile justice groups from all 50 states that sent a similar letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen M. Nielsen Thursday.

“We are writing to ask that you reverse course on your inhumane decision to separate children from their parents at the border,” the senators said in Thursday’s letter to Trump. “This policy has traumatized children who are fleeing extreme violence. Our government has a humanitarian duty to the children and families seeking asylum in the United States to end this policy immediately.”

The senators underscored that the administration’s cruel and unnecessary separations run counter to widely accepted standards of care that prioritize keeping children and families together whenever possible.

“Best practices in child welfare promote keeping children and their parents together unless removal is in the child’s best interest,” the senators wrote. “Unnecessarily separating more children from their parents will further exacerbate the lack of home-based foster care placements available and increase the use of large-capacity institutional settings, such as abandoned military bases, to house these children.”

Read the full text of the letter here.

Meanwhile, Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., on Thursday pressed the Trump administration for answers on how children who have been separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border are being treated while detained.

Last Sunday, Merkley visited the border to investigate the Trump administration’s cruel new child separation policy and to try to see how children in so-called “unaccompanied minors” shelters are being treated. While Merkley was admitted to a Customs and Border Patrol processing station where families are being separated, he was denied entry to a facility where children are being detained. Not only was Merkley unable to see anything of the conditions that children were living in inside, supervisors at the site refused to answer questions and referred Merkley back to the head office in Washington, D.C.

On Thursday, Merkley followed up with that office–the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR)–to demand answers on how these children are being treated.

“It is outrageous and cruel to intentionally inflict trauma on vulnerable children, including toddlers and some as young as 12 months, by separating them from their parents or family members and placing them in separate detention facilities in order to influence and deter parents from seeking asylum in the United States,” Merkley wrote in a letter to ORR Director Scott Lloyd.

“Under U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions ‘zero tolerance’ policy on immigration prosecutions, children must be forcibly separated from their families, falsely labeled ‘unaccompanied alien children,’ and transferred to your agency’s custody,” Merkley continued. “According to press reports, more than 600 children have already been separated from their families since the implementation of this policy at the beginning of May, bringing the total under your care to a staggering 11,200.”

Merkley demanded answers to the following questions no later than next Friday, June 15. He also reiterated his request that he and other members of Congress be able to visit ORR facilities and speak with children and staff.

1. Since the “zero tolerance” policy officially went into effect on May 7, 2018, how many children have been transferred to the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) or its contracting agencies’ custody? How many of these children were separated from their parents and how many entered the United States as unaccompanied minors?

2. How many children in the following age groups is the ORR or its contracting agencies currently holding in detention?

a. Newborns to 1 years old?

b. Between the ages of 2 to 4 years old?

c. Between the ages of 5 and 8 years old?

d. Between the ages of 9 and 13 years old?

e. Between the ages of 14 and 18 years old?

3. What is the average and median length of stay for these children? How does this figure compare with 2017 and 2016?

4. How many ORR facilities are currently operational for children and what is the capacity for each of them?

5. How many organizations and companies contract with ORR to house children separated from their parents and unaccompanied minors? What are their names?

6. What bathroom facilities and accommodations do these shelters have and are the conditions sanitary? For instance, are there bathrooms, showers, and towels? Are there rooms for the children that have beds with bedding? If so, how many beds per room?

7. What are ORR’s mandated facility standards for shelter contractors?

8. What are the required staffing ratios, broken down by age groups?

9. What categories of staff require credentials to work in these facilities?

a. Which credential requirements are ORR imposed and which are state required?

10. How many facilities have state monitors? How often are facilities monitored?

11. What is the process for providing education and schooling to children? How many days a week is schooling provided and how many hours per day?

12. Are these children permitted to leave the premise to go outside? Is there recreational time available for physical exercise?

13. What is the process for providing health care services to children? In order to receive medical care, are health care providers on-site or are ill children transported to hospitals or other health care providers?

14. What services are provided to children for trauma support and mental health care? Are mental health care professionals providers on site?

15. Are children informed, in writing or verbally, that any information they provide to medical professionals or facility staff will be added to their immigration record and can be used against them in immigration court?

16. Please provide a current breakdown by category of children’s approved sponsors.

a. Category 1 – Parents

b. Category 2 – Family members

c. Category 3 – Non-relative

17. How do detained children communicate with their parents? How often are they allowed to communicate with their parents, through what method, and for what duration?

18. Are in-person visits between the children and their parents permitted? If so, what are the procedures and policies surrounding visitation and how often do they occur?

19. Are in-person visits between the children and their lawyers permitted? If so, what are the procedures and policies surrounding visitation and how often do they occur? Under what circumstances, if any, would a lawyer be denied entry to visit with a child?

“It is imperative that children, regardless of their nationality, be treated with a bare minimum standard of fairness and compassion throughout our immigration system,” Merkley wrote. “I eagerly anticipate your prompt response to these critical questions.”