WESLACO, Texas -- Senators Ted Cruz and John Cornyn toured immigrant detention facilities for children in South Texas and held a roundtable at the Weslaco Border Patrol Station Friday afternoon.
The roundtable was expected to include representatives from federal agencies involved in the process of receiving, detaining and adjudicating immigrant families, as well as non-profits and local elected officials.
Both senators have introduced legislation to end the separation of immigrant parents and children at the border known as the Keep Families Together and Enforce the Law Act.
According to a press release, the act requires the Department of Homeland Security to keep immigrant families together at residential centers pending the outcome of their immigration proceedings; sets mandatory standards of care for family residential centers; authorizes more than 200 new immigration judges and requires the DHS Secretary and Attorney General to expedite the court proceedings of children and families; and keeps children safe by requiring a child be removed from the care of their guardian in certain cases.
Those cases include:
- the individual presents a clear danger to the health and safety of the child,
- DHS cannot verify that the individual is actually the parent of the child,
- the parent of the child has a violent history of committing aggravated felonies,
- the child has been a victim of sexual or domestic abuse, or
- the child has been a victim of trafficking.
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