Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) said President Donald Trump’s “zero-tolerance,” immigration policy, which resulted in the separating of some immigrant children from their families, was “contrary to our American values.”
Collins said, “I’m very concerned about it. I had a lengthy discussion with the secretary of Homeland Security, and I really pressed her on this issue because so far only 500 children, it’s my understanding, have been reunited with their parents, and some 2,000 remain in detention centers. I think that’s traumatizing to these children and contrary to our American values.”
She continued, “Also overlooked is the fact that there are some 10,000 unaccompanied minors who came here without their children. This is a problem that goes back into the Obama administration when we saw a flood of unaccompanied minors coming into this country, and we do not seem to have a good plan for how to deal with those children either. Part of the answer is clearly working with the leaders of the home countries, the three countries of Central America whose parents are sending these unaccompanied minors here or are accompanied them here. So that is part of the answer, but I’m going to continue to press Secretary Nielsen on this very important issue. It is simply inconsistent with our American values to split up families.”
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