[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 123 (Monday, July 23, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Page S5117]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           FAMILY SEPARATION

  Mr. NELSON. Mr. President, do you remember children being separated 
from their families? This crisis is far from over. As a matter of fact, 
we found out it is not 2,000 children; it is 3,000 children.
  A district court judge in San Diego has ordered the administration to 
reunite all of the families who were separated at the border by 
Thursday. Yet with the deadline looming this week, the administration 
continues to cite the many obstacles it says that are hindering the 
work they are trying to do to comply with the court's order.
  When I went to the detention center in Homestead, FL, they said they 
were going to reunite families soon thereafter. That was more than a 
month and a half ago. As a matter of fact, of the 1,300 children that 
had been separated from their parents, there were 70 of them who were 
there.
  They would not let me speak to them, so I inquired about whether the 
children had been able to speak to their parents on the phone. I was 
told that of the 70, 62 of the children had spoken to their parents. It 
has recently been made clear why some of those families have been 
unable to connect for so long. A report that was just published stated 
that the administration--the Trump administration--has been charging 
detained parents--get this--as much as $8 a minute to call their 
children. These children were separated from their parents because the 
administration separated them. That is $8 a minute if you want to talk 
to your child. That is a new low.
  Charging these families an exorbitant fee such as this, just to 
talk--just to talk--to their children, when the cost of providing that 
service is minimal, that is not even a conscionable act.
  Many of those families have come and asked for political asylum. They 
are asking for what the law provides, and yet we have separated the 
children from their parents and have prevented those parents from 
simply using the telephone to contact their children. Many of those 
children are just terrified, and they are being held thousands of miles 
away. It is not only unnecessary, it is simply cruel.

  It also seems to fly in the face of ICE's own policy to permit calls 
by detainees to immediate family members in case there are family 
emergencies and to do so at a reasonable cost, certainly not $8 a 
minute for poor families who don't have $1, much less $8. A number of 
us in the Senate have now sent a letter urging the administration to 
stop this ridiculous practice and allow those parents the ability to 
talk to their children.
  The list of obstacles this administration claims it is facing in 
order to reunite the families seems to be never-ending. But I would 
suggest that the list of obstacles the administration has created for 
these families to overcome, just to see their children again, seems to 
go on and on.
  As a country, the United States is better than this. We should be 
making it easier for these families to reconnect and ultimately bring 
them back together, as the court has ordered. There are many in this 
Chamber who would certainly join with me. We are not going to turn our 
backs on these children. We will continue to fight to ensure that they 
and everyone else are being treated the way the American people want 
them to be treated.
  I urge this administration to do the same, and I urge the 
administration to pay attention to the letter by a couple of dozen 
Senators that is coming to them today.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Boozman). Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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