Kids don't belong in detention

Right now, families and children seeking asylum are being locked up at the Dilley detention center in Texas.

This isn't by some accident or oversight. The Trump Administration brought back family detention on purpose, betting that most Americans wouldn't notice or wouldn't care.

I'm fighting back because children don't belong in detention.

In June 2018, during Trump's first term, when I heard Trump's Attorney General talking about mistreating children to discourage immigration, I traveled to the border in Texas to see what was happening. What I found was stunning: CBP agents separating children from their parents and holding them in chain-link cages inside a warehouse.

I spoke out, and that moment helped force the country to confront what the Trump Administration was doing to kids.

Now they are detaining kids again. Different facility, similar cruelty.

My experience at the border is why I introduced the Children's Safe Welcome Act to shut facilities like Dilley down for good and end family detention nationwide.

Here's what my bill does:

• Closes Dilley and any facility like it
• Bans locking up children and families for immigration violations
• Replaces detention with community-based alternatives that are cheaper, more humane, and actually work

I visited those facilities in 2018. I saw the cruelty. And we know similar cruelty is happening right now at these facilities, and I'm not going to let it happen without a fight.

Kids don't belong in detention. I'll keep pushing this bill until it's law.

Onward,

Jeff