Warren, Durbin, Leahy, Padilla, Merkley Encourage Biden Administration's Efforts To Aid Families Separated Under Trump’s Cruel "Zero-Tolerance" Policy
Washington, D.C. – United States Senator Elizbeth Warren (D-Mass.); Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee; Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee; Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Chair of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration; Senator Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.); and fifteen of their Senate colleagues sent a letter to President Biden in support of his administration’s continued efforts to provide a just resolution for families who were separated under former President Trump’s cruel and ineffective “zero-tolerance” policy. The senators expressed their support for President Biden’s Interagency Task Force on the Reunification of Families, and encouraged the administration’s continued efforts to reunify families, use humanitarian parole authority, and settle tort claims.
“The Trump administration not only made the cruel decision to rip thousands of babies and kids from the arms of their parents, but it also made little effort to keep track of separated families,” said Senator Warren. “I am grateful for the work that President Biden’s Interagency Task Force on the Reunification of Families has done to help families who were ripped apart, and my colleagues and I will do anything we can to help these families and make sure this cruelty never happens again.”
The Trump administration’s practice of forcibly removing thousands of children from their parents has been characterized by the American Academy of Pediatrics as “government-sanctioned child abuse” that “causes irreparable harm” to children by inhibiting brain development and causing other long-term health problems. The Trump administration’s callous disregard for record-keeping made identifying and reuniting separated families a significant challenge for the Biden administration.
In the letter, the senators applauded the ongoing work of the Biden administration’s Interagency Task Force on the Reunification of Families, established a year ago to address the human tragedy of the “zero-tolerance policy” and aid families impacted. The Task Force has since identified nearly 4,000 children who were separated from their parents under “zero-tolerance”, and as of November 2021, at least 1,217 children had not been reunified with their parents.
The senators affirmed the authority of the Justice Department to settle tort claims as appropriate, and expressed opposition to ill-advised attempts to constrain the Department’s authority to defend the interests of the United States. The letter also points out that none of the Biden Administration’s efforts to resolve this cruel legacy would be necessary if the Trump Administration had not deliberately caused such needless harm to so many thousands of parents and children in the first place.
Senator Warren has led efforts to help families who were separated under Trump’s “zero-tolerance” policy, to hold the Trump administration and its officials accountable for this cruel policy, and to conduct rigorous oversight of the contractors responsible for executing this policy:
- In September 2019, Senator Warren and Senator Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) sent a letter to then-Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar raising concerns amid reports that while the Homestead Temporary Shelter for Unaccompanied Children (Homestead) was no longer being used to detain migrant children, could be used for that purpose again, despite its history of overcrowding and poor conditions. They also sought information about where children previously detained at Homestead were relocated and all potential future uses of the facility.
- In June 2019, Senator Warren and eight Senate colleagues called on the federal government to investigate federal contractors in charge of migrant children detained after crossing the U.S. southern border after disturbing reports of hungry, sick, and unbathed children being held in federal contractor facilities near the border.
- In June 2019, Senator Warren and Representative Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) called out former White House Chief of Staff General John Kelly's "cynical" and "unethical" decision to join the Board of Directors of Caliburn International Corp., the federal contractor that ran the nation’s largest detention center for migrant children.
- In May 2019, Senator Warren demanded answers from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) regarding recent reports that five children who had been in CBP custody died over the course of six months, and to get answers on steps CBP is taking to protect children in its care.
- In April 2019, Senator Warren called on the Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to investigate reports that DHS used information from a private intelligence firm that reportedly monitored family separation protests across the United States in June 2018.
- In February 2019, Senator Warren and Senator Tina Smith (D-Minn.) sent a letter to the Senate HELP Committee leadership requesting a hearing on the “zero-tolerance” family separation policy.
- In June 2018, following a visit to the U.S.-Mexico border and detention facilities, Senator Warren sent a letter to then-HHS Secretary Alexander Azar and then-DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen questioning them on the process that Administration officials claim to have put in place to reunify the families separated by President Trump's “zero-tolerance policy.” She also questioned their conflicting statements about the conditions in the facilities and the systems in place to reunite families.
- In June 2018, Senator Warren and Senator Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) called on then-Program Associate Director for General Government Programs at the Office of Management and Budget, Kathy Kraninger, to provide information on what role she played in the Trump Administration's policy to separate children from their families at the United States southern border.
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