L.A. Focus is reporting that California’s Democratic Senator Kamala Harris is calling for the resignation of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen over the Trump Administration’s policies that led to migrant children being separated from their families at the border.
“The government should be in the business of keeping families together, not tearing them apart,” said Harris in a lengthy statement on Twitter.
I’m calling on Kirstjen Nielsen to resign as Secretary of Homeland Security. Under her watch, our government has committed human rights abuses by breaking up families along the southern border. And she has failed to be accountable to and transparent with the American people.
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) June 18, 2018
The thousands of children who’ve spent days and weeks separated from their families still woke up this morning without their parents. This Administration must take immediate action to reunite them. https://t.co/cavIfV0GhX
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) June 21, 2018
Trump’s executive order does not fix this crisis. It gives no solution for the thousands of children who have been torn away from their families and remain separated.
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) June 20, 2018
Despite their best efforts to conceal from and confuse the American people about what’s going on, one thing is clear: this Administration is intentionally breaking up families along the border and putting these children in cages. pic.twitter.com/8t0Zyzo7Hg
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) June 19, 2018
Secretary Nielsen must resign. The human rights abuses being committed against children — many are just toddlers — by the U.S. Government along our southern border is evidence enough that she is incapable of running DHS in a way that reflects our values. pic.twitter.com/TykmuOyWBb
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) June 19, 2018
Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced a “zero-tolerance” policy in April that calls for the prosecution of all who enter the U.S. illegally. It led to nearly 2,000 children being detained over six weeks and sparked bipartisan backlash led by Democrats. Nielsen defended the Trump administration’s immigration policy, saying, “We will not apologize for the job we do, or for the job law enforcement does for doing the job that the American people expect us to do.”
Harris has previously criticized the separation of undocumented children from their parents, calling it “human rights abuse” — and has frequently and famously butted heads with Nielsen and her predecessor John Kelly. Monday’s statement marks the first time the Democratic senator has called for the DHS secretary’s resignation.
