Outraged Lawmakers Hold Press Conference After Touring Immigration Facility: It’s ‘Un-American’

Lawmakers gathered in McAllen, TX Sunday for a press conference to speak out against the Trump administration’s treatment of immigrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border.

One of the most scathing criticisms was brought by Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX), who condemned family separations, demanding that President Donald Trump end the practice now.

“Let me just quickly say that when you have a mother tell you directly that she’s in fear that she will never see her child again and when the United Nations human rights commission indicates to the Trump administration you’re violating human rights, then you know that what we are saying today is President Trump, cease and desist because you are moving the arc of justice to the heap of despair and the trash heap of injustice,” Jackson Lee said.

Her strong remarks were met with applause and cheers from the crowd as Sen. Peter Welch (D-VT) stepped up to the microphone, railing against the separations as “appalling” and “un-American.”

“It’s a pretty grim sight to see really good young healthy-looking kids with so much fear, so much anxiety, so much wonder of what is next,” he said. “They don’t know where their parents are. They don’t know what tomorrow’s going to bring. They don’t know if there’s a future.”

Welch expressed frustration with the criminalization of migrants making the dangerous journey to the U.S., stating they “knock on the door of freedom” only to “be put in handcuffs.”

“And after the parents are in handcuffs their kids are taken away to parts unknown,” he added.

Almost 2,000 immigrant children were separated from the adults with whom they were crossing the border over the course of six weeks from April to May, according to the Department of Homeland Security’s Friday announcement.

Watch the clip above, via CNN.

[Image via screengrab]