By Bob Plain in
Rhode Island’s Future
 |
| The facility Cicilline visited is a former Wal-Mart |
“It’s horrific,” said
Congressman David Cicilline. “It’s barbaric.”
The Rhode Island
Democrat was describing what he saw after visiting immigration detention
centers on the Texas/Mexico border this weekend where President Donald Trump’s
family separation policy is playing out as a moral and political crisis before
America’s and the world’s eyes.
“It is horrifying to
see young children behind a chain link enclosure,” he said.
“There’s no
furniture. They are sitting on the floor, a few of them have mats, looking
afraid, not sure of what is happening to them. It’s disgraceful. No child
should be in that kind of facility ever and certainly children who are fleeing
violence.”
Cicilline joined a
congressional delegation that included senators Jeff Merkeley, Oregon, and
Chris Van Hollen, Maryland, and representatives Peter Welch, Vermont, Mark
Pocan, Wisconsin, Shelia Jackson-Lee, Texas, and Vincente Gonzalez, who
represents the Texas district where the facilities are located.
“Every legislator in
Washington should have seen those children and talked to those mothers,”
Cicilline said, and I think they would understand what we are doing – what’s
being done in our name – is un-American and needs to stop and doesn’t reflect
the basic values of this country.”
“When I looked at
these children and thought they that were placed there by actions of the
federal government I was horrified,” Cicilline said. “This is being done in our
name. This is being done in the name of the American people.”
The group spoke with
10 mothers who had been separated from their children. “They could barely get
through the story without completely sobbing uncontrollably recounting how
their children were taken away or that they didn’t know where their child was
anymore,” Cicilline said.
“I said to them one of
the reasons we are here is because we think this policy is a violation of U.S.
law and that it undermines the values of our country and that we are going to
do everything we can to persuade the administration to stop this policy and that
there were lots of people in the country that do not agree with it and that
we’re going to do everything we could to prevent the president from continuing
this policy.”
He explained he feels
the policy violates U.S. law because it is “basically extinguishing your right
to have your asylum application heard. They are using ripping away their
children to discourage them from making an asylum claim, which our law provides
them.”
Cicilline said the
idea that Trump would separate families for political advantage was
“despicable.”
“If you’re imprisoning
children and ripping them away from their parents to use them as a bargaining
chip to get your wall or to get some other immigration legislation…” he said,
leaving the sentence unfinished as if he didn’t know quite what to compare that
to.
“Children should never be used as a bargaining chip in legislative
negotiations. I don’t think you can ever enter into negotiations when you
are imprisoning children and ripping them away from their mothers as a
bargaining chip. This doesn’t require any negotiations. This is a policy they
put in place, they should stop it immediately.”
As for broader
solutions to immigration policy, Cicilline said the House could pass bipartisan
bills right now if Speaker Paul Ryan would only allow members to vote on them.
“The answers are out
there,” he said. “We have good bipartisan compromises. If they came to the
floor, they would pass. The Republican speaker just will not bring anything to
the floor for a vote.”
After I spoke with
Cicilline on Tuesday, Republicans in Congress began exploring ways to end Trump’s family
separation policy.
“I think the more
their constituents learn about the process the more horrified they are going to
be and [Republicans] are going to feel more pressure,” Cicilline said, prior to
that development. “As President Lincoln said ‘public sentiment is everything’
so we need to keep the pressure on so that they understand their constituents
are watching this.”
Bob Plain is the editor/publisher of Rhode Island's Future. Previously,
he's worked as a reporter for several different news organizations both in
Rhode Island and across the country.