Oregon lawmakers speak out on immigration detainees
U.S. Rep Suzanne Bonamici (D-Ore.) recently visited 123 detained men at the federal prison in Sheridan, Oregon. She was accompanied by Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) as well as U.S. Rep Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.).
Bonamici said most of the detainees were seeking asylum because they had experienced violence or persecution in their home countries, adding that several had traveled to the border with a wife and a child or children, but none knew where their family members were at the time.
The congresswoman said most of the men had not spoken with a lawyer who could explain their rights, had difficulty making phone calls due to a lack of money or connections.
"These stories we heard were compelling and disturbing," Bonamici said. "These men were victims of horrific crimes or unbearable persecution. Instead of getting information about their rights to request asylum, they were treated as criminals."
"The United States of America was built by immigrants and has for centuries offered immigrants an opportunity to build a life with freedom and hard work. That's the American Dream," she said. "Today, the Trump Administration and Attorney General Jeff Sessions are turning a blind eye to our nation's history and causing long-term damage to innocent children. It's abhorrent and it must stop now."
Merkley pressed the Trump administration for answers on how children who have been separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border are being treated while detained.
Last Sunday, Merkley visited the border to investigate the child separation policy and to try to see how children in the shelters were being treated. While Merkley was admitted to a Customs and Border Patrol processing station where families are being separated, he was denied entry to a facility where children are being detained.
Not only was Merkley unable to see anything of the conditions that children were living in inside, supervisors at the site refused to answer questions and referred Merkley back to the head office in Washington, D.C. Merkley followed up with that office—the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR)—to demand answers on how these children are being treated.
"It is outrageous and cruel to intentionally inflict trauma on vulnerable children, including toddlers and some as young as 12 months, by separating them from their parents or family members and placing them in separate detention facilities in order to influence and deter parents from seeking asylum in the United States," Merkley wrote in a letter to ORR Director Scott Lloyd.
"Under U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions ‘zero tolerance' policy on immigration prosecutions, children must be forcibly separated from their families, falsely labeled ‘unaccompanied alien children,' and transferred to your agency's custody," Merkley continued. "According to press reports, more than 600 children have already been separated from their families since the implementation of this policy at the beginning of May, bringing the total under your care to a staggering 11,200," the senator wrote.
"It is imperative that children, regardless of their nationality, be treated with a bare minimum standard of fairness and compassion throughout our immigration system," Merkley wrote. "I eagerly anticipate your prompt response to these critical questions."