Rep. Lou Correa Urges President-Elect Biden To End Family Separation
Correa Joined 87 Members of Congress In Calling For Immediate Action To Help Separated Children
Washington, D.C. — Today, Congressman Lou Correa joined 87 of his colleagues in sending a letter to President-elect Joe Biden urging him to assist the children harmed by the Trump Administration’s inhumane family separation policy.
In the letter, Congressman Correa urged the President-elect to exercise existing legal authorities to give safe refuge to the children, including the almost 630 children that remain separated from their families and help them reunite with their parents. While long term solutions are available to children hurt by family separation, Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) or parole-in-place are two examples of programs that would allow separated children to come out of the shadows and live in the United States formally.
Rep. Lou Correa said, “President Trump and his Administration separated thousands of children from their parents in a deliberate attempt to threaten lawful asylum seekers and prevent families fleeing violence from coming to our shores. I joined my colleagues in applauding President-elect Joe Biden for his commitment to ending family separation and urged him to dismantle the inhumane immigration policies that allowed such a tactic to be used.
“We are a nation of immigrants. Many of our families fled violence, persecution, and famine for a shot at a better life. Our immigration system should reflect that history and welcome new Americans with open arms and compassion.”
Read the letter:
December 22, 2020
President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.
Biden-Harris Transition
1401 Constitution Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20230
Dear President-elect Biden:
We write to urge you to assist the children harmed by the Trump Administration’s inhumane family separation policy. We wholeheartedly agree with you that this policy “violates every notion of who we are as a nation,”1 and believe that the United States has a duty to help the victims of this horrific policy. To that end, we urge you to use your legal authority to assist the children in the United States, particularly those whose parents have not yet been located, ensuring their safe refuge while the search continues and allowing them to safely reunite with their parents.
As you know, since 2017 the Trump Administration has separated thousands of children from their parents and legal guardians at our border without clear evidence that keeping them together presented a danger to the children.2 When the Trump Administration implemented its nationwide family separation policy, it knew that hundreds of children would likely never be reunited with their parents.3 Nevertheless, it cruelly deported parents without their children and compounded its culpability by failing to record meaningful contact information for many of these parents.4 More than 300 children separated by the Department of Homeland Security were under the age of five at the time of the separation.5
As of today, tragically, the parents of almost 630 separated children still have not been located.6 We commend you for committing to stand up a federal task force to find the parents of these children on Day One of your presidency. We applaud this initiative and are eager to work with you to find these missing parents and reunite families. At the same time, we strongly recommend that your Administration use its legal authority to establish a means by which the children victimized by this
Thank you for your attention to this request. We look forward to working with you throughout your Administration.
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Rep. Lou Correa represents California's 46th Congressional District. He serves as Chair of the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Transportation and Maritime Security, and as the Vice Chair of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet. Read more here.
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