Nearly one year after the Trump administration implemented a zero tolerance policy for undocumented immigrants that led to the separation of thousands of migrant children from their families at the U.S. border with Mexico, those who enforced the policy are now under scrutiny from a Democrat-controlled House of Representatives.
On Wednesday, Dept. of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielson faced tough questioning from Congress, including a request from Homeland Security Committee Chair Bennie Thompson that Nielsen admit that children had been held in “cages” in border detention centers.
Ali Noorani, the executive director of the National Immigration Forum, joined Jim Braude and Margery Eagan on Boston Public Radio to discuss current issues surrounding immigration in America, and where the U.S. government is in returning displaced children to their families.
Noorani, who visited the facilities at the border, said Nielsen's denial that children are being held in cages is simply wrong.
"I went to see the facilities during the Obama administration back in 2014 when we first saw the unaccompanied minor crisis spike," Noorani said. "They were cages then, they are cages today. These are chain link fences that are temporary houses for young children who are fleeing poverty and violence in Central America. There's just no way around it."
In addition to the Congressional questioning, Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan was questioned Wednesday by the Senate Judiciary Committee, and while senior officials testified before the House and Senate, Dept. of Homeland Security Inspector General John Kelly gave testimony before the House Committee on Appropriations.
"It was an incredibly busy day," Noorani said. "Across the board, you saw an administration refusing to kind of pull back the curtain and say, 'Okay, this is what happened.' You have the commissioner of Border Patrol calling for the indefinite detention of children."
According to Noorani, this represents a wave of accountability brought on by Democrats in the House after issues on the border have been mishandled.
"It is good to see the Democrats starting to shine light on what the administration has been doing," Noorani said. "I only hope that yesterday is the first of many hearings that we're going to see in the next two years that inform the American public of exactly what this administration has been doing with our tax dollars."
Ali Noorani is the Executive Director of the National Immigration Forum. His latest book is "There Goes the Neighborhood: How Communities Overcome Prejudice and Meet the Challenge of American Immigration."
