ALICIA MENENDEZ: The Trump administration continues to push for more immigration restrictions amid the coronavirus pandemic. The administration indefinitely extended border restrictions which authorized the immediate removal of immigrants even seeking asylum to mitigate the spread of Covid-19. Migrant children are bearing the brunt of harsher restrictions as reports show unaccompanied migrant children have been deported at quicker rates. And immigrants in family ICE detention centers have reportedly had to choose between releasing their children or staying together in detention indefinitely.
Reports of that process caused House Democratic lawmakers, including Joaquin Castro, to send a letter urging the Trump administration to answer vital questions on that family separation process by May 28. I'd like to welcome Texas Congressman and chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, Joaquin Castro. Congressman, we've read a lot about this policy called a binary choice where these parents are being asked to make what is an impossible decision of whether they release their child without them or they stay in detention facilities with them where they know that the spread of Covid-19 is a real threat. What are the questions that you want answered from the administration?
CONGRESSMAN JOAQUIN CASTRO (D-TX): Yeah, you're right. I mean, all indications are that ICE is forcing this ungodly choice on parents either keeping the kids with them or separating them during this pandemic, and so we want to know whether the federal government following the Flores decision of years ago and acting consistent with law. But this is really just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what's going on. If you think about it, very few times in American history has the United States closed itself off to the world the way the Trump administration has closed us off at this point. What I mean by that is that right now nobody can naturalize -- in other words, you can't become a citizen, nobody can get a green card, no asylum seekers who are in desperate situations can have their asylum claims processed. And people are being summarily deported -- even asylum seekers -- without any due process of law. And it looks like the administration wants to keep those restrictions in place indefinitely. You can imagine we have a mountain of questions for President Trump and his administration.
MENENDEZ: I would add to what you just laid out that there is now also reporting from the New York Times that there are unaccompanied children at the border who are being sent back to their country of origin without so much as someone telling their parents or family members that they're being sent back such that they can make plans for receiving them. What does it tell you that that and what is happening in detention facilities is happening at the same time in the middle of a pandemic?
