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New Mexico Sens. Heinrich, Udall Visit Borderland over Trump's Immigration Policy

U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich's Office

http://youtu.be/ERTxb98OuhE

President Trump’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy has separated more than 2,000 children from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border. As a result, New Mexico Democratic Senators Martin Heinrich and Tom Udall as well as Connecticut Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal visited the Borderland to get answers.

They toured the Tornillo tent city where more than 320 minors were being detained. After stops at El Paso’s Border Patrol station and Paseo del Norte port of entry, the New Mexico lawmakers returned to Las Cruces to speak at a “Keep Families Together” rally at Alma d'Arte Charter School.

Hundreds of residents filled the school gymnasium to hear the senators speak out against Trump’s separation policy and describe their experiences at the border. Heinrich said he met with families in Border Patrol custody.

“I think the thing that will probably stick with me today is a two-year-old little girl who was in custody with her father. I don’t know whether they will be granted asylum or not but I know had they come a few days earlier, she would have been stripped from his arms and they would be today in two different places and goodness knows how long before they would be reunified. So, it was a very powerful day,” Heinrich said.

President Trump signed an executive order reversing his family separation policy. Heinrich said while the children in Tornillo are receiving high quality care, the Trump administration has no legal basis to indefinitely detain immigrants.

“They set policy based on what they think will sound like a good sound bite on cable news and they do it without actually engaging the people at CBP or Border Patrol or Health and Human Services who actually have to make these things work at the ground level and deal with refugees who are coming here seeking asylum because they’re fleeing violence and instability at home,” Heinrich said. “So far, this administration has shown itself utterly incapable of connecting policy with actual details and facts.”

Along with senators, officials from local government, religious and social organizations supported reuniting immigrant families. New Mexico Second Congressional District Candidate Xochitl Torres Small, who also visited Tornillo, said the event’s large turnout shows a community-wide demand for a resolution.

“It reflected a need from the entire community, a concern and frustration from the entire community because we all know that children need their parents and that it’s wrong and immoral to take them away and so it was inspiring to see so many people together today ready to make sure and stand up for a solution that reflects our New Mexican values,” Torres Small said.

The nonprofit organization Catholic Charities of Southern New Mexico works with detained immigrants at detention centers in New Mexico and West Texas. Staff Attorney Imelda Maynard said many parents don’t know their children’s whereabouts and separate legal cases complicate deporting them together. She also said the treatment parents receive at some processing centers, like in Otero County, is concerning.

“A lot of these parents are looking at their own treatment and thinking ‘If I’m being treated this way, how is my child being treated?’ So that’s a huge concern,” Maynard said. “It’s good to hear from the senators that apparently in Tornillo, they’re getting good humane treatment but that’s not what the fathers are experiencing at Otero and so that’s a huge concern for them and that’s also working to get them to give up whatever claim they had just to get out of there just because the conditions are so bad.”

There are other hidden consequences experts say immigrant children are facing that aren’t being properly addressed. Micah Pearson is president of the National Alliance on Mental Illness chapter in Doña Ana County. Pearson said the trauma that comes with separating children from their parents creates a host of mental health issues that can impact their entire lives.

It really won’t be some of these kids, it will be all of them and it will be post-traumatic stress disorder, separation anxiety, anxiety disorders, increased chances for developing substance abuse issues as they get older, which will of course lead to criminalization and a burden on the criminal justice system,” Pearson said. “It’s going to spiral in every possible way.”

President Trump has told Congress it should wait until after the midterm elections to pass immigration legislation. Heinrich said that’s not an option.

“These families can’t wait, but the President can make a difference,” Heinrich said. “This was his policy that created this family separation emergency and as he showed with that executive order, he does have the power to end it. But he needs to take that a step forward and figure out how we’re going to now reunite these kids with their families, these thousands of kids who have already been separated.”

Heinrich said he hopes to pass legislation prohibiting future separation of immigrant families. 17 states including New Mexico have filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over the policy.

Michael Hernandez was a multimedia reporter for KRWG Public Media from late 2017 through early 2020. He continues to appear on KRWG-TV from time to time on our popular "EnviroMinute" segments, which feature conservation and citizen science issues in the region.