Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin called on Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen to resign on Tuesday, accusing her of misrepresenting the Trump administration’s immigration policy.
Durbin quoted Nielsen during his opening remarks at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on immigration enforcement and family reunification efforts, pointing out that Nielsen said the Trump administration does “not have a policy of separating families at the border.”
[Trump’s answer to family separation: ‘Don’t come to our country illegally’]
Thousands of children have been separated from their parents or other family members at the U.S.-Mexico border, some of whose parents were deported without them. Though the practical effect of President Trump’s zero-tolerance immigration policy has led to the family separations, the separations themselves are not policy.
“I am today calling on the architect of this humanitarian disaster — Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen — to step down,” the Illinois senator said.
“The family separation policy is more than bureaucratic lapse in judgment. It is and was cruel policy inconsistent with the bedrock values of this nation. Someone, someone in this administration has to accept responsibility,” he continued.
A spokesman for DHS fired back, blaming Congress for dragging its feet on immigration reform.
“Instead of criticizing a government official who is actually doing the job she was nominated, confirmed & sworn to do and enforcing the laws passed by Congress, the obstructionists in Congress should get to work to secure our borders, end legal loopholes & protect American lives,” press secretary Tyler Houlton said in a tweet.
Instead of criticizing a government official who is actually doing the job she was nominated, confirmed & sworn to do and enforcing the laws passed by Congress, the obstructionists in Congress should get to work to secure our borders, end legal loopholes & protect American lives.
— Tyler Q. Houlton (@SpoxDHS) June 18, 2018
.@SecNielsen is committed to standing up for the law enforcement community, protecting the homeland and negotiating in good faith with serious members of Congress who want to fix our broken immigration system.
— Tyler Q. Houlton (@SpoxDHS) June 18, 2018
Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said the zero-tolerance policy may have been “well-intentioned,” but there have been “unintended consequences” because the Trump administration has “mishandled” the separations.
Citing news reports about parents being deported without their children and the emotional strain such separations can have on children, Grassley decried the treatment of migrants in U.S. detention facilities.
“If families and children are going to be kept in federal custody they must be kept in facilities where they will be treated humanely, and with the basic dignity that all people — no matter what their immigration status — deserve. Unfortunately, recent media reporting I’ve seen suggests the federal government is failing miserably at this task,” the senator said.
Grassley admitted Congress also deserves blame for its failure to move immigration reform, as well as the Obama administration for some instances of abuse that took place before Trump took office.
