The Trump administration missed a court's deadline to reunite immigrant children with their parents because it had no plan in place to keep track of the children or the parents or to reunite them, Rep. Joaquin Castro claimed Thursday.
"Not only did the trump administration make a decision to inhumanely separate young children from their mothers and fathers, but at the time that they did it, it's become very clear that there was no plan in place to either keep track of the children and the parents which we've asked to receive in Congress and have not gotten, but there was also no plan in place to reunify these folks," the Texas Democrat told MSNBC's "Morning Joe."
On Thursday, the Department of Homeland Security reported that half of 100 children under the age of five who have been separated from their families will not be reunited because of "safety concerns posed by the adults," or the "circumstances of the adults."
Castro said he also wonders about the State Department's role in the child separations.
"If you think about it, some of these parents have been deported and they may be sitting in Guatemala," said Castro. "HHS [Health and Human Services] doesn't have an outpost in those countries. It's the State Department that has to help in the reunification process."
Many in Congress are feeling the pressure from the public over the child separations, and "we're trying every angle," said Castro, including "calling, writing letters, doing everything we can, badgering these folks. You've seen people in the streets protesting. Marching. I mean, it's basically all hands on deck."
Castro also commented on the growing call to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement, noting that the agency has far more functions that just enforcing immigration law, including tracking down human traffickers.
"Obviously, you're not going to get rid of that function," said Castro. "What I do think we need to do is take the enforcement and removal part of what they do and go start over and place it somewhere else."
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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