Oregon’s U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley arrived in Texas Friday. He’s leading a congressional delegation to investigate the Trump administration’s treatment of detained migrant children.
So far Senator Merkley has visited two detention centers located outside remote Texas towns.
“They’re different in that the first one is female head of family and children and the second one is an old medium security prison but it’s also holding men and their children.”
The senator says about 2,000 people are currently held in the centers. And there is room for more. He says the facilities have been neat and tidy but…
“It’s not the physical buildings I have qualms about. It’s their function. Which is to lock up immigrant families while they’re awaiting asylum hearings.”
Merkely denounces the Trump administration’s efforts to create more detention centers through executive action. He’s sponsoring the “No Internment Camps in America Act.”
