President Donald Trump is ultimately responsible for the conditions that migrant children are being held under after they cross the nation's border, Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin said Tuesday.
"Harry Truman was right when he said 'the buck stops here' when it comes to the president," the Illinois Democrat said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe."
"It's his decision ... it is the president. Make no mistake. We've had four different secretaries over at the Department of Homeland Security. That is inexcusable, but ultimately, it's the president's responsibility."
Trump's history, Durbin continued, included instituting the Muslim travel ban and eliminating the DACA program, before "they took 2,280 children, infants, and toddlers away from their parents and tossed them into a bureaucratic sea," and now calling for mass arrests of illegal immigrants.
Durbin led the writing of a letter that was signed by 20 senators and sent to the International Red Cross, asking it to investigate U.S. detention facilities, particularly where it comes to children.
The senator said he toured family facilities a few weeks ago in El Paso, Texas, and saw the "detestable conditions, the unacceptable, inhuman conditions which we are imposing on these people."
He added that a provision has been included in the new supplemental appropriation bill to give lawmakers access to facilities where children are being held.
He said he'll concede that the system is overwhelmed, but that children are not being guaranteed basic necessities such as medical care, food, and access to showers.
"This is one of the most embarrassing chapters of our history under a president who believes if you get tough enough, you'll solve the problem," said Durbin. "He's wrong."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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