Sen. Kamala Harris on Monday called on Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen to resign after she defended the Trump administration’s practice of dividing families at the U.S.-Mexico border.
“The government should be in the business of keeping families together, not tearing them apart. And the government should have a commitment to transparency and accountability. Under Secretary Nielsen’s tenure, the Department of Homeland Security has a track record of neither,” the California Democrat said in a statement Monday. “As a result, she must resign.”
“The Department’s lack of transparency under Secretary Nielsen’s leadership, combined with her record of misleading statements including yesterday’s denial that the administration even had a policy of separating children at the border, are disqualifying,” Harris continued. “We must speak the truth. There is no law that says the administration has to rip children from their families. This administration can and must reverse course now and it can and must find new leadership for the Department of Homeland Security.”
Harris is the first senator to call for Nielsen’s resignation, but lawmakers on both sides of the aisle continue to criticize the Trump administration over the practice.
The administration has argued that family separation is the result of decisions to prosecute anyone who tries to enter the U.S. with children outside a U.S. checkpoint, since federal law prevents the U.S. government from holding minors in detention for longer than three days.
President Trump has blamed Democrats for failing to negotiate on an immigration bill that could change the practice.
“If the Democrats would sit down instead of obstructing, we could have something very quickly,” the president said Monday.
