HLADEMS STATEMENT on SEPARATING IMMIGRANT CHILDREN FROM THEIR PARENTS We are heartbroken and angered by the Trump Administration’s cruel practice of separating immigrant children from their parents at the border. This treatment is a direct result of Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ decision to prosecute all adults who arrive at the border for illegal entry, even when they are seeking asylum. We learned of a father who committed suicide following the seizure of his children. Just today the American public heard the story of a mother whose infant daughter was taken from her as she was breastfeeding. And we all had a chance to see pictures of an overcrowded detention facility for boys in an abandoned WalMart building in Brownsville, Texas, where children sleep five to a room and have nearly no contact with their parents or the outside world. This treatment is inhumane and violates our values as Americans.
The Heart of L.A. Democratic Club applauds Senator Dianne Feinstein for her leadership in introducing the Keep Families Together Act, legislation which is aimed at keeping immigrant families together by preventing the Department of Homeland Security from taking children from their parents at the border. You can read more about the Act here. We encourage you to contact your members of Congress (find them here) and encourage them to support this bill.
Additionally, here are some things you can do to help now: