WASHINGTON, D.C. – Six months after his Father’s Day trip exposing the child imprisonment and family separation crisis on the Texas border, Oregon’s Senator Jeff Merkley will lead a congressional oversight trip investigating the Trump Administration’s treatment of children who have crossed the U.S.-Mexico border fleeing persecution and danger abroad.
Merkley will be joined on the delegation this Friday and Saturday, December 14 and 15, by Senators Mazie Hirono (D-HI) and Tina Smith (D-MN) and Congresswoman Judy Chu (D-CA-27).
Representative Beto O’Rourke (D-TX-16) will also join the delegation on Saturday at Tornillo.
The delegation will look at how children have been treated in two different settings: family internment centers and child prisons—each of which have been called out by experts for their traumatizing effects on children. Specifically, the delegation will inspect family internment centers in Karnes City and Dilley, Texas; and the child prison in Tornillo, Texas. The Tornillo child prison is currently incarcerating more than 2,000 children in a tent encampment in the desert.
WHO:
Oregon’s Senator Jeff Merkley
Senator Mazie Hirono (D-HI)
Senator Tina Smith (D-MN)
Representative Judy Chu (D-CA-27)
Representative Beto O’Rourke (D-TX-16)*
*Saturday only
WHAT:
Congressional delegation investigating the Trump Administration’s mistreatment of child asylum seekers
WHERE:
South Texas Family Residential Center, Dilley, TX (Friday)
Karnes Residential Center, Karnes City, TX (Friday)
Tornillo Children’s Detention Camp, Tornillo Port of Entry (Saturday)
WHEN:
Friday, December 14, and Saturday, December 15, 2018
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