Md. Senator Bashes Trump Administration After Touring Detention Facilities Housing Children Of Illegal Immigrants
BALTIMORE (WJZ)-- The Trump Administration is not backing down amid growing outrage over migrant children being separated from their parents at the U.S. border.
"This is not working in terms of stemming the folks who are fleeing for their lives from violence," said Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen, who toured facilities in southern Texas.
Since April, almost 2,000 children have been separated from parents detained for illegally crossing into the United States.
"We talked to one of the moms there who'd been separated from her daughter," Van Hollen said. "The mom and daughter had come from Guatemala. They asked for asylum, but now the mom's being prosecuted as a criminal and will be separated form her daughter. This is a deliberate and inhumane policy, and we're here to say to President Trump: End it. End it today."
The President blamed Congress for inaction. At a White House briefing, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said her agency would not apologize and defended the treatment of children.
"We have high standards. We give them meals and we give them education and we give them medical care," she said. "There are videos, there are TVs. I visited the detention centers myself."
Several Republicans have come out against the separation policy, including Maryland Governor Larry Hogan. The Governor tweeted, "Washington has failed again & again to deliver needed immigration reform - Congress and the administration must step up and work together to fix our broken system. Immigration enforcement efforts should focus on criminals, not separating innocent children from their families."
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