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June 19, 2018

Thompson Statement on Secretary Nielsen’s Sad Defense of the Child Separation Policy

(WASHINGTON) – Today, Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-MS), Ranking Member of the Committee on Homeland Security, released the following statement on Secretary Nielsen’s press briefing and attempt to defend the Administration’s child separation policy:

“Secretary Nielsen’s attempt to do the White House’s bidding and defend President Trump’s horrific child separation policy was just the usual spectacle of lies, misstatements, and outright propaganda that we see from this Administration on a daily basis. Secretary Nielsen must be aware that she now owns the implementation of child separation and is fully complicit.  Any notion that Congress can come together and reform our immigration system and fix every issue overnight is laughable with the current GOP Leadership - and the Administration knows this.”

“This is not about Congress. This is not about Democrats. To be clear: there is nothing on earth preventing the Administration from canceling this policy and keep these families together. To be clear: they do not want to help these families. We will not play politics while they hold children hostage as leverage to get their draconian immigration agenda through Congress. That is their only strategy and the American people, we now know, are firmly against it.”

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Media contact: Adam Comis at (202) 225-9978