'Gut-Wrenching' Family Separations On Border: Sen. Van Hollen

MCALLEN, TEXAS — Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen joined a delegation of seven other Congressional Democrats who are in the border region of Texas looking into the Trump administration's controversial zero-tolerance policy on immigrants that has separated hundreds of children from their parents. Also with Van Hollen are Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley and six U.S. House members.

Van Hollen posted comments and videos to his Facebook from the stops along the US-Mexico border to visit with children he said have been "ripped apart by the Trump Administration's cruel new policy that separates children from their parents. This inhumane policy must stop! Immigration policy can be complicated, but human decency is not."

The delegation visiting the McAllen Border Patrol Processing Center, the Border Patrol Station there, the Hidalgo Port of Entry, and at least on Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center. He and the other Democratic lawmakers on the trip are demanding that President Trump end the policy of separating families who arrive at the border seeking asylum.

At the Port Isabel Detention Center Van Hollen said he "heard gut-wrenching testimony from ten women who fled extreme violence in Honduras only to have their children taken away from them. It was definitely one of the most emotional moments of the trip."

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One lawmaker in the group estimated that there were 100 children under the age of 6 at the Port Isabel facility. Immigrants are being kept in cells surrounded by tall metal fencing inside a building that looked like a warehouse divided into cage-like structures housing different groups, The Washington Post reports. Those being held are sorted into groups — unaccompanied boys 17 and under; unaccompanied girls 17 and under; male heads of household with their families; and female heads of household with their families.

At the Brownsville Children's Facility the senator said officials wouldn't let the group talk to kids and "they even tried to stop me from recording outside the building. They are clearly sensitive about this trip," Van Hollen said. "This place is packed with kids—over 100 taken from parents."

Some 1,995 children were taken from their migrant parents at the border from April 19-May 31, according to Department of Homeland Security data obtained and reviewed by the Associated Press. That means, on average, that 48 kids are ripped from their families on any given day.

On Monday, he met with Sister Norma at the Catholic Charities Center in McAllen, Texas. "She is truly an angel, caring for desperate families fleeing horrific violence," he said. "As she and I discussed, the families who make it to her center are the fortunate ones."

President Trump repeatedly pins the problem on Democrats, saying they passed the law that is tearing families apart. In fact, no such law exists. The reason for the family separations is a zero-tolerance policy that families illegally crossing the border are automatically referred for criminal prosecution — typically meaning detention for adults pending their trials. According to the U.S. protocol, if children's parents are in jail, they're separated because the kids aren't charged with a crime.

Before the policy change this spring, entire families were referred for civil deportation proceedings and separation wasn't required. Administration officials have said the policy change is aimed at deterring families from fleeing to the U.S. border.

Image of Sen. Chris Van Hollen outside the Port Isabel Detention Center in Texas, from his Facebook video