On Wednesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “Situation Room,” Representative Eric Swalwell (D-CA) stated that ending the separation of families is the right thing to do, but President Trump’s executive order “could lead to family internment camps,” and there need to be more resources devoted to ensure asylum cases are adjudicated quickly.
Anchor Wolf Blitzer asked, “Congressman, this executive order that the president just signed, apparently will keep families together, but they will be together in detention while parents face criminal prosecution. Is that the solution you were hoping for?”
Swalwell answered, “No, Wolf. … You know, this policy of breaking the bond between parents and children and putting children in cages is inhumane, and the president was right to stop that policy, but let’s not give him a medal for starting the fire and then bringing the fire hose. The best thing we can do is to stay loud as American citizens, because I think that’s what moved him to do the right thing. But also to make sure that we are not indefinitely detaining families, and that we devote resources so we can adjudicate these asylum cases as quickly as possible, and also that the ports of entry are open. Because right now, we’ve heard too many cases of people going to the right channels, to the ports of entry, being denied, and then they have to illegally cross and then that’s used as the reason to separate them.”
He added that the executive order “could lead to family internment camps, Wolf. And that is what we do not want to see. And the way to avoid that is to still follow that Flores decision, which is a humane decision that does not want people in camps like this indefinitely, but also to put the judges down there, to allow the Border Patrol agents to process the evidence and have ports that are open, so that we can make decisions as to whether there are lawful asylum cases or not.”
Swalwell further stated, “indefinitely keeping them there is no better than separating children from their parents.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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