The first thing that struck us on entering the immigrant processing center in McAllen, Texas was the desperation: hundreds of people, scooped up by U.S. Border Patrol agents after arduous treks from Central American countries, most of them fleeing gang violence and drug cartels.
These frightened families and individuals were kept in chain-link holding cells, segregated by age and gender, trying to get warm under Mylar blankets. They were bewildered and scared. Many were worried their children would be taken.
But given the conditions that caused them to flee, they felt there was no other choice than to risk the long and uncertain journey to the United States.
Last weekend, I traveled with more than two dozen congressional colleagues to the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas to traverse the path of people like these — from a bridge in Brownsville where they wait hours or days for the chance to cross, to a Border Patrol station, to a processing center for those arrested without documents, and finally to separate detention centers for children and adults.
I also visited the Denver Contract Detention Facility in Aurora, which brings people with some of the saddest stories in the world right to our doorstep. They remain behind its metal fence and mostly windowless walls for as long as it takes for their cases to be resolved. Most of them were confused about their legal rights, and those whose kids had been sent elsewhere were desperate to see them.
There has to be a better way. There aren’t enough translators and lawyers and caregivers and judges to handle the influx of humanity through our southern border humanely. And there aren’t enough words to convey what one feels when coming face to face with those affected.
The most disturbing thing I saw was a group of 45 refugee women at the detention center in Port Isabel, Texas who had been separated from their children under President Donald J. Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy. We spoke at length; many didn’t know where their kids were, and even the ones who did could only talk to them once a week. Two were breastfeeding and had their babies taken.
Children as young as nine months were kept at a “tender care” facility in Brownsville; there were babies and toddlers and pre-teens everywhere, and the people caring for them were doing their best, but what these children really needed was their parents.
As a nation, we have to take a hard look at the way we treat people who are fleeing repressive governments and gang violence. We need to treat them with human dignity, process them swiftly and accurately, and handle them humanely.
And we must ensure that never, ever again in this country do we split up families. Beyond the vague Executive Order that President Trump issued last week to stem the crisis he had caused, we need to make changes to laws, regulations and government structures.
We must do this not just for people who come here with hope in their hearts and the tiny hands of the next generation clasped in their own.
We should do it for every person in this country who believes in the promise of what Ronald Reagan once called a “shining city on a hill.” And it’s not an impossible task. As Bill Clinton said, “There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America.”
I’m going to spend the next days and weeks urging colleagues on both sides of the political aisle to pass the Keep Families Together Act, then return to working on a comprehensive solution to our country’s broken immigration system.
I’m also going to fight for changes to how the government agencies responsible for apprehending and processing undocumented migrants, whether asylum-seekers or those just looking for a brighter future, can work better together to ensure that the process for dealing with them is just.
Maybe that means appointing a “czar” of the type that, until the Trump Administration, managed federal policy on illegal drugs. But first, we need to address some serious issues with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
ICE is a rogue agency, and we need to bring under control its arbitrary use of arrest and deportation tactics.
There clearly has not been enough streamlined, efficient coordination among federal agencies to ensure a smooth return of these children to their parents’ arms. As a result, many are facing prolonged pain on top of the trauma caused by the needless breakup of their families. ICE must be reined in.
I call on colleagues and people of conscience across the United States to push President Trump toward a more just solution to the refugee crisis he created during the past few months than his vague order.
We can and must do better.
Diana DeGette, Chief Deputy Whip, represents Colorado’s First District to the U.S. Congress.
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