As the Trump administration continues to have children kidnapped from the arm of parents at the southern border in custody more than 130 days past a federal judge’s reunification deadline, Speaker-designate Nancy Pelosi said this ongoing crisis will be among the “critical” issues addressed by the new Democratic majority in the House.
“We will hold the Trump Administration accountable for their inhuman policy of separating families, and the trauma and anguish they have inflicted on vulnerable children and families at our border,” she said in a statement. In another statement last month, Congress member Jerry Nadler, widely expected to chair the House Judiciary Committee, also promised to use new powers in the name of accountability.
“Members of the House Judiciary Committee have written repeatedly to the Trump Administration to request briefings,” but “we have received little or no substantive response to any of these requests,” he wrote. “In the next Congress, this Committee will examine the administration’s immigration and detention policies and the longstanding damage these policies may have had on families and children in your custody.”
To make his point, he cited over one dozen letters sent to administration officials—including prolific liar Kirstjen Nielsen—by House Democrats regarding child detention and family separation that he now expects responses to “no later than December 31.” There’s sure to be plenty of resistance from Trump officials, but Democrats will be in a position to be able to fight it.
We’ll need to fight hard, because more than 100 children separated from parents under the barbaric “zero tolerance” policy are still in U.S. custody, according to the most recently available numbers, including 99 children whose parents were already deported but have indicated they don’t wish to be reunited. Some of these kids are still in custody despite their parents already having designated a sponsor.
Today, Wednesday, December 5, marks 132 days since a federal judge’s reunification deadline. Family separation remains a crisis.