DeGette: Plans for Family Reunification, Continued Warehousing of Children Need Resolution in Wake of Trump’s Vague Executive Order

Washington, DC – Congresswoman Diana DeGette (D-CO), Chief Deputy Whip, today said the president's belated Executive Order does nothing to reverse the damage this disgraceful campaign has inflicted, since it offers no path to reunite the families already affected and will still put children and their parents behind fences, locked doors and even the gates of military bases as they await a decision on their applications for asylum.

"I call on colleagues and people of conscience across the United States to push President Trump toward a more just and complete solution to the refugee crisis he created during the past few months than this vague Executive Order," DeGette said.

"Keeping asylee families caged on charges that might not even apply to them is a different kind of evil. We are a nation of laws, not some arbitrarily cruel authoritarian regime. Under current statute, coming into this country without documentation is at worst a misdemeanor that in no way calls for ripping families apart, then jailing them together."

DeGette noted that the lack of a practical means either in this order, or in any substantial statements since then by the Trump administration, to reunite the families separated in recent months – which include 2,300 children, from toddlers to teens – shows a disturbing lack of planning for not only the aftermath of the order, but also for these families' future even if the order hadn't been issued.

She will take part in a delegation of fellow House members to the Southwest U.S. border during the next two days to observe detention centers there, including those currently warehousing the very young. The group intends to keep the crisis caused by President Trump in the spotlight to ensure follow-through not only on his latest Executive Order, but also on ensuring that the families shattered in recent months are made whole.

DeGette has served in the House Democratic leadership since 2005 while also shepherding significant bipartisan bills that she has written into law. She urged her colleagues on both sides of the aisle to pass the Keep Families Together Act, then return to working on a comprehensive solution to our country's broken immigration system.