Thompson Writes Nielsen on Immigrants Transferred to Federal Prisons
(WASHINGTON) – Today, Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-MS), Ranking Member of the Committee on Homeland Security, sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen to express his concern and request more information regarding U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) recent transfer of 1,600 detainees to five federal prisons due to President Trump’s zero-tolerance policy.
Congressman Thompson released the following statement along with the letter:
“The Trump Administration’s zero-tolerance policy punishes asylum seekers and separates children from their parents at the border. Ill-prepared for the inevitable consequences of its own misguided and inhumane policy, the Administration has now begun to shuffle immigrant detainees to federal prisons and place thousands of children in one or more tent cities along the border. ICE could and ought to be releasing those with asylum applications on alternatives to detention or other similar procedures, which are less costly and have been utilized by past Administrations of both parties. This Administration’s response to our broken immigration system, much to the fault of its own making, continues to be inhumane and un-American.”
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