Fullerton, CA – Congresswoman Julia Brownley (D-CA) today took part in a site visit of a Southern California facility that is housing immigrant children who have been separated from their parents due to President Trump’s inhumane and callous immigration policies. The non-profit shelter, which receives funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Refugee Resettlement, is currently home to 16 immigrant children, ages 8 to 17, who have been separated from their parents. Brownley was joined by Congressman Adam Schiff (D-CA) to tour the facility and speak with staff from HHS and the shelter about the treatment of the children and efforts to reunite them with their parents. Brownley released the following statement:
“Today, I witnessed the gut-wrenching sight of children who were cruelly separated from their parents by the President of the United States, through no fault of their own, and with no assurance if or when they will be reunited with their families.
“While the State of California has regulations in place to ensure basic care and accommodations are provided to these children, and the caregivers within this particular facility were doing their best to help the children, there is no guarantee that children separated from their parents and housed in other states will receive the same treatment.
“It is very apparent that President Trump and his administration still have no real plan for how to reunite these children, and the thousands of other children separated from their families. It is also very clear that the federal government, under his leadership, is doing an exceptionally poor job of coordinating the reunification process. At the facility I visited, some children have yet to be able to speak to their parents, and the parents of other children have already been deported — leaving these children scared, alone, and with little-to-no information regarding their future.
“The President needs to end this humanitarian crisis that he willfully initiated. These children need to be reunited with their families immediately, and moving forward, we need to execute an immigration policy that actually reflects who we are as a nation and the values we uphold as Americans.”
Issues: 115th Congress, Immigration