Florida Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz said Monday morning that she will fight the Trump administration's family separation policy.
"As a member of Congress, I can fight," she said during a meeting with representatives of immigrant rights associations in South Florida.
A thousand children are being held inside of a federal compound in Homestead, Wasserman Schultz said. But it's not yet clear where they came from. The congresswoman said she doesn't know whether the children at the Homestead Temporary Shelter for Unaccompanied Children were separated from their parents under the administration's policy, or whether they crossed unaccompanied.
Activists from groups like Mujeres Latinas, United We Dream and the Hispanic Unity of Florida asked Wasserman Schultz for help in finding ways to fight separation between parents and children.
The Trump administration announced a “ zero tolerance” border policy early this year, which allows for the separatation of children from their parents as a deterrent. But Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen denied that in a series of tweets Sunday night.
We do not have a policy of separating families at the border. Period.— Sec. Kirstjen Nielsen (@SecNielsen) June 17, 2018
Wasserman Schultz said the policy is inhumane and vowed to change the law.
"We don’t need a completely unnecessary border wall and we need the administration to end their family separation policy right now," said Wasserman Schultz.
The congresswoman said she's traveling to Brownsville, Texas, Friday, to visit one of the detention centers that is housing children that have been separated from their parents.
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