In The News

On one level, the divisions between the groups who convened at a New Jersey detention center this past Father’s Day could not have been more stark; seven of them were lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives — positions of both power and privilege — while the other five were immigrants who, facing imminent deportation proceedings, find themselves at the very hands of the government their fellow attendees are serving in.

Several Democrats decided to use Father’s Day to call attention to the practice of separating children from their families at the border amid growing outrage. A group of Democratic lawmakers from New York and New Jersey went to an immigration detention center on Sunday and talked to immigrants who had been separated from their families. The seven Democrats — Reps. Frank Pallone, Albio Sires*, and Bill Pascrell of New Jersey and Reps. Jerrold Nadler, Carolyn Maloney, Hakeem Jeffries, and Adriano Espaillat of New York — made the surprise visit to the Elizabeth Contract Detention facility in Elizabeth, N.J., where they had to wait for about an hour before finally being allowed inside.

Democratic congressional members from New Jersey and New York met Sunday with immigration detainees separated from children at the southwest border, and said they will introduce legislation Tuesday to change the policy.

A contingent of Democratic lawmakers made a Father’s Day visit to a detention center in New Jersey to meet with men seeking asylum who have been separated from their families because of President Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy toward immigrants.