Members of Congress meet with imprisoned immigrants

U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer broke down at a press conference June 16 after he and other Democratic members of the Oregon congressional delegation visited immigrants imprisoned at the federal penitentiary in Sheridan.

Some of the 123 men transported to the prison June 7 were separated from their children as part of a hardline Trump administration policy.

"I kept thinking about my grandkids under 6," Blumenauer said as his voice cracked with emotion. Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley placed their hands on his shoulder as he continued.

"What would happen to them if their parents' lives were at risk — to take a journey of hundreds and, in some cases, thousands of miles and then be subjected to that?" Blumenauer asked. "It's incomprehensible to me, and it ought to be incomprehensible to everyone else."

Also with U.S. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, Blumenauer and the delegation spent an hour visiting the detainees.

"What we saw over the last hour demonstrates that the Trump zero-tolerance policy makes zero sense and shows zero understanding of American values," Wyden said.

He told reporters he planned to spend Sunday meeting with lawyers for the detainees.

"There was this pattern, it seems to me, of rights that sure feel more like rights in name only rather than the rights you associate with basic human decency," he said.

One of the detainees was reportedly separated from a child no more than 18 months old.

"Certainly, we need to change this terrible system," Bonamici said. "Make no mistake. Children are being ripped out of their parents' arms because of the Trump-Sessions policy, and they could change it today, and they should change it today."

President Donald Trump said last week he wants to change the policy announced by Attorney General Jeff Sessions that separates all parents and children — without exception — who attempt to cross the United States' southern border illegally.

However, the president said, changing the policy is contingent on Democrats in Congress agreeing to pay for his proposed border wall and other immigration reform agenda items.

"Democrats can fix their forced family breakup at the border by working with Republicans on new legislation, for a change!" Trump wrote in Twitter comment June 16.

Merkley called the president's stance immoral on its face.

"There is no moral code in the universe, and there is no religious tradition on Mother Earth that supports or condones inflicting harm on children in order to influence others or create legislative leverage."

Trump also claimed, in a June 5 tweet, the law that separates immigrant families was passed by Democrats. That statement is false, according to fact-checking websites Snopes.com and FactCheck.com. There is no federal law that stipulates children and parents must be separated at the border.

Blumenauer said if the administration truly cares about the rule of law, it should be concerned with treaties signed by the United States that guarantee refugees the right to prove their need for asylum. "That's the law, not phony stuff that Trump makes up," he said.

"The notion that we are going to criminalize being persecuted, and we're going to enforce it by yanking children from their families and sending them God knows where, it's abhorrent," he added.

"And I don't care if you're a Republican or Democrat, what you think about immigration — whether we have too much or not enough — nobody should treat children that way," he said.

Merkley said the administration's policy on immigration contradicts American values.

"We have grown up and understood the challenge of those fleeing oppression as symbolized by the Statue of Liberty with a torch in her arm saying, ‘Give me your tired, your poor, your huddles masses yearning to breathe free,'" he said.

"But now we have a whole new message to those fleeing persecution, and the story now is if you come fleeing oppression, you wash up on the shores of the United States, you will be arrested as a criminal, you'll be put in a prison, your children will be taken away from you."

State Rep. David Gomberg, who represents House District 10, which includes Sheridan, also visited the prison. He did not take part in the ensuing press conference, but described what he saw in a Monday email.

"I understand that many of us have strong and differing opinions on immigration issues. But ripping children away from their families, denying asylum seekers access to a lawyer, and segregating and dividing nationalities so they cannot even communicate with cellmates is cruel, inhumane, and illegal," he wrote.

Gomberg stated that of the 123 immigrants in the prison, 52 listed India as their home country. Many identified themselves as Sikhs or Christians fleeing religious persecution from the Hindu majority.

"The East Indians told the congressional delegation that Hindi and Punjabi translators who came Saturday were the first outsiders they've been able to talk to since they were imprisoned weeks ago. The migrants said they are locked up 22 to 23 hours a day, three to a cell. They have no access to legal services, clergy, or religiously appropriate food, and often, cellmates do not speak the same language," he wrote. "Those with families say they have no idea where their wives or children are, and they fear they'll be deported and separated from them forever."

Bonamici also mentioned how many feared they would be killed if returned to their native country. She added the detainees also lack access to medical care.

"We spoke with a man who had been shot in his home country," she said. "He showed us where the bullets had hit him. He has not been able to get medical care here."

Another prisoner showed the delegation what looked like an open wound on his leg, she added.

"He has not been able to see a doctor," she said. "This is unacceptable. This is not how people in the United States treat other human beings."

Detainees told her and her colleagues they were informed if they didn't sign deportation papers they would be in the prison for five years, Bonamici said.

In the short term, Bonamici said, Congress needs to work to make sure people have access to exercise, lawyers and physicians.

Then larger immigration issues need to be addressed, she said.

"What we heard today is essentially this grotesque Trump policy, this grotesque Trump treatment, means that in effect the detainees are largely lumped and then dumped in a prison," Wyden said.

"America and Oregon are better than this," he said. "We are better than this. We've always had in America a system where we examine the specifics of an individual's circumstance, look at the case. We just don't lump and dump."

Carissa Cutrell, a spokeswoman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said the agency is working to ensure detainees have appropriate access to lawyers.

Cutrell said ICE is committed to connecting family members as quickly as possible after separation so parents know where their children are and have regular communication with them in accordance with ICE policies and detention standards

Earlier this month, Merkley said he tried to enter a federal facility in Brownsville, Texas, where immigrant children are being held, but police were called and he was told to leave.

Merkley was accused of grandstanding by the Department of Health and Human Services' Administration for Children and Families. The agency said concerns about the safety, security and dignity of the children led to Merkley being kept from the Texas facility.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.