05.24.21

Durbin Statement On DHS Report on Trump Administration's Family Separation Policy

Report: “ICE removed separated parents [under Trump Administration’s policy] without their children even though ICE officers effecting their removal knew the parents wanted to bring their children with them.”

SPRINGFIELD—U.S. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, released the following statement after the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) released a report on the Trump Administration’s family separation policy, the latest in a series of investigative reports which Durbin requested in March 2018.  The report found that under the Trump Administration’s policy, “ICE removed separated parents without their children even though ICE officers effecting their removal knew the parents wanted to bring their children with them.” 

“Donald Trump’s ‘zero-tolerance’ policy has earned the dubious distinction of being one of the meanest, most shameful chapters in our nation’s immigration history.

“Those who conceived of this travesty will have to live with the memory of their cruelty for the rest of their lives.  Sadly, thousands of their victims, including many children, will live with scars of this experience as well.

“The challenge we face now is to establish a fair, sustainable immigration policy which secures our borders and our conscience.”

In March 2018, Durbin led 23 of his Senate colleagues in a letter to then DHS Acting Inspector General John Kelly calling for an investigation into the allegations that DHS was separating the children of asylum-seekers from their parents.

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