Durbin Accuses Trump Admin of Purposefully Avoiding Reuniting Migrant Families: Policy ‘to Be Mean’

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) slammed the Trump administration on Sunday for tearing apart migrant families at the U.S.-Mexico border, calling it downright “mean.”

“What we see in this process, forcibly removing children from their parents at the border, and then putting them adrift on a bureaucratic sea, where they can’t even find them–if you took a child into a hospital for treatment, the first thing they do is strap a bracelet on the wrist to make sure they aren’t lost in the hospital,” he told NBC’s Chuck Todd during a Meet the Press appearance. “It is a convergence of cruelty and incompetence that brings us to this moment. Now, it is up to a federal judge in San Diego to enforce his order this Tuesday, so that children under the age of 5 are reunited.”

The Trump administration is seeking an extension of the July 10 deadline for the reunification of parents and children who are less than 5 years-old, saying it hasn’t has enough time, but a judge denied that request Friday.

Durbin suggested reunification wasn’t happening simply because the administration doesn’t want it to, accusing it being intentionally cruel and using the crisis as a way to deter additional migrants from making the journey.

“They have the resources to get it done,” he said. “This is not an accident. This is a policy of deterrence, to stop future flow, to be mean to these kids and their families, to say to others, don’t even try it.”

Watch the clip above, via NBC.

[Image via screengrab]

Follow Amy Russo on Twitter: @amymrusso

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