Congressional Hispanic Caucus Demands Multi-Agency Meeting to Conduct a Comprehensive and Complete Examination of Trump’s Family Separation Policy

WASHINGTON—Today, Congressional Hispanic Caucus Leadership called on Secretary Nielsen, Attorney General Barr, Commissioner McAleenan, Deputy Director Vitello and Acting Director Hayes to meet with the Caucus and discuss the Trump Administration's immigration policies as well as family separation and reunification efforts. By inviting officials from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Department of Justice (DOJ), Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), this meeting will allow Hispanic Caucus members to simultaneously question and seek answers from all the agencies that carried out the Administration's family separation policy and identify the issues that remain.

The letter was led by Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chair Joaquin Castro (TX-20) and signed by Hispanic Caucus leadership members Congressman Ruben Gallego (AZ-07), Congresswoman Nanette Diaz Barragán (CA-44), Congressman Adriano Espaillat (NY-13), and Congresswoman Veronica Escobar (TX-16).

This Hispanic Caucus request follows several meetings between CHC Members and these agencies. In February 2019, Hispanic Caucus members met with HHS Assistant Secretary Johnson to discuss her Department's role in detaining migrant children and alarming reports of sexual abuse of children in HHS custody. The Caucus also met with DHS Secretary Nielson in July 2018 to discuss her Department's implementation of the inhumane family separation policy. The Caucus also met with John Kelly in April and July of 2017 in his role as Homeland Security Secretary, as well as January 2018 during his tenure as White House Chief of Staff. Members of the Hispanic Caucus, along with Congressional Leadership also met with ICE Acting Director Thomas Homan but only after he first refused to meet with the entire Congressional Hispanic Caucus in February 2017. The Hispanic Caucus also requested meetings with then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions in May 2017 and July 2018. Sessions declined to meet with the Caucus.

"We have met with officials independently from several of your agencies, we have noticed that while the agencies have some answers to our questions, there is a lack of a clear, comprehensive and complete examination of how DHS, HHS and DOJ coordinated to carry out the Trump administration's family separation policy. It is now clear that DHS and DOJ failed to properly communicate the launch of this harmful policy, DHS failed to track and identify all separated children and parents at the border, and HHS was given the arduous task of tracking and identifying as many separated children as possible," the Members wrote. "Our 38-member Caucus represents millions of individuals living along the border, has been a voice for Latino and immigrant communities for decades, and has introduced legislation that addresses many issues in our broken immigration system. As such, it is imperative that our members work with you to understand the full impact of this policy, and the progress in redressing its devastating impact on asylum seeking families."

Full text of the letter follows and can be found here.

Dear Secretary Nielsen, Attorney General Barr, Commissioner McAleenan, Deputy Director Vitello and Acting Director Hayes:

On Friday, March 8^th, California Judge Sabraw ruled that the Trump administration is legally responsible for all children that were separated from their parents following the family separation policy, which includes children that were separated from June 2017 through June 2018. Though there are no firm estimates on the total number of children that were separated, Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) officials have estimated that of the more than 47,000 children that were in Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) custody in that year, thousands of children could have been separated. This is in addition to the over 2,800 children that HHS was tasked with locating the parent and helping to reunify them with their child this past year.

The Congressional Hispanic Caucus has been following the issue of family separation closely and has sent a number of letters, met with HHS and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials and visited a number of DHS and HHS facilities to examine the conditions of these facilities and the treatment of children, parents, family members and adults in these settings.

As we have met with officials independently from several of your agencies, we have noticed that while the agencies have some answers to our questions, there is a lack of a clear, comprehensive and complete examination of how DHS, HHS and DOJ coordinated to carry out the Trump administration's family separation policy.

It is now clear that DHS and DOJ failed to properly communicate the launch of this harmful policy, DHS failed to track and identify all separated children and parents at the border, and HHS was given the arduous task of tracking and identifying as many separated children as possible.

Many questions remain on this failed and cruel policy and it now appears that given this most recent ruling, DHS and HHS will once again need to work with nonprofit groups to help locate and identify possibly thousands of additional separated children. We, therefore, request a multi-agency meeting with an official, or officials, from each of your agencies to meet with CHC members to discuss how administration officials will ensure that all separated children have been identified, and that a system is created that ensures the proper tracking and processing of all families so that a crisis like this never happens again. It is critical that we meet with the three agency officials at the same time to ensure CHC members get a full and complete understanding of this policy and the issues that remain.

Our 38-member Caucus represents millions of individuals living along the border, has been a voice for Latino and immigrant communities for decades, and has introduced legislation that addresses many issues in our broken immigration system. As such, it is imperative that our members work with you to understand the full impact of this policy, and the progress in redressing its devastating impact on asylum seeking families.

We know scheduling a multi-agency meeting can be a challenge but we look forward to working with you to schedule this important meeting. Please let us know dates and times that work in the coming weeks to allow for our members to meet with officials in your respective agencies.

Sincerely,

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The Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC), founded in December 1976, is organized as a Congressional Member organization, governed under the Rules of the U.S. House of Representatives. The CHC is dedicated to voicing and advancing, through the legislative process, issues affecting Hispanics in the United States, Puerto Rico and U.S. Territories.