Flanked by Vice President Mike Pence and DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, President Trump issued an executive order on Wednesday ending the practice of splitting families apart upon detention at the border. Both parties had been putting pressure on the president to take action, while simultaneously drawing up their own bills that would also end the practice.
Both Georgia Senators have signed on to the Keep Families Together and Enforce the Law Act, which would require accompanied minors under age 18 together with their families at the border in residential housing centers pending the outcome of their cases.
“We should not separate children from their parents at the border, and Congress and the administration should work to keep families together whenever possible while enforcing our laws and protecting the border,” said Isakson. “Our porous borders combined with dangerous conditions in other parts of the world have caused an influx of immigrants entering the country illegally. The Keep Families Together and Enforce the Law Act would help us deal with this influx and improve the processing of immigration cases by adding judges and residential centers while also allowing families to stay together.”
After saying yesterday that the media was distracted by “the latest shiny object” and that they should be focusing on the debt and proposed Republican spending cuts, Senator David Perdue got on board with the GOP proposals today to end the practice of separating families. Immigration hawk Perdue, a close ally of President Trump, echoed some of the president’s statements on the issue on Wednesday.
“President Trump wants to enforce the law and keep families together, and this bill does both,” said Senator Perdue. “Alternatively, what the Democrats have proposed would incentivize more people to come into our country illegally. Now is the time for cooperation from both sides in Congress, so we can successfully send a solution to the President’s desk.”
There is also legislation in the House that will likely come up for a vote today. Rep. Buddy Carter (R-GA 1) supported the actions of the president and told InsiderAdvantage he is looking forward to passing new legislation. “Now is the time to end this situation once and for all and both the president and Congress should act to keep families together when possible while protecting our border and national security. It sounds like the president will make an announcement shortly and the House is working on a legislative solution as we speak.”
Meanwhile, in Atlanta, Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms took action of her own relating to the separation of illegal immigrant families. “My personal angst has been compounded by the City of Atlanta’s long-standing agreement with the U. S. Marshall’s Office to house ICE detainees in our City jail. While this arrangement may seem hypocritical to my personal stance, the reality of the detention of those seeking legal status in our country is most often not if they are detained, but where they will be held,” said Lance Bottoms.
“As we work as a nation to end this despicable immigration policy, the City of Atlanta will not take the risk of being complicit in the separation of families at the border. Thus, I have signed an Executive Order that prohibits the City jail from accepting any new ICE detainees.”
Theoretically, the action taken by the president today, and the pending action in the legislature, will render Lance Bottoms order moot and the city will begin accepting detainees again soon. Theoretically.
