Congressman Cleaver Calls on Administration to End Zero-Tolerance Policy

Statement

Congressman Emanuel Cleaver, II released the following statement regarding President Trump's recently signed Executive Order to address the issue of children being separated from their parents at the border.

"The Trump administration has not yet demonstrated that they are doing all they can to reunite detained children with their families and answer the questions that those of us in Congress and around the country are asking. This crisis was created by President Trump with his decision to enforce a zero-tolerance policy for those coming over the southern border. The executive order signed yesterday is an attempt to solve a problem that the President himself created, and does not formally end the zero-tolerance policy. Furthermore, the executive order does not reunite the thousands of families already separated.

While the order allows families to be detained together -- dependent upon available resources - it opens the door for the families to be detained indefinitely while the parents are prosecuted.

The Administration has yet to answer many questions regarding how these families will be reunited, how many have been put in foster care, what kind of oversight is being done at these facilities housing unaccompanied minors, and how much money the government is spending on the contracts for these facilities.

I am heart-broken when I think about these children, and the parents who may or may not be reunited with their babies, their flesh and blood. We cannot and should not detain families indefinitely. What we must do now is work on reunification, even though many of these children have been shipped across the country and some of their parents may have already been deported. Childhood adversity and trauma can have lasting, long-term consequences on a person's health. This is not what America should stand for."

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