Thread by @ReichlinMelnick

Good morning! Today the House Oversight Committee will hold a hearing on "The Trump Administration’s Child Separation Policy: Substantiated Allegations of Mistreatment." I'll be livetweeting parts of the hearing (from 10AM-12PM).

Here's the livestream. oversight.house.gov/legislation/he…

Today's hearing is broken into two panels. Up first will be four members of Congress themselves testifying about what they witnessed firsthand at the border on a recent trip: Representatives @AOC, @RepEscobar, @RashidaTlaib, and @AyannaPressley.

The second panel includes both government and non-government witnesses. Members will hear from Jennifer Costello, Acting DHS Inspector General, Ann Maxwell, Assistant IG for HHS, Columbia Law's Elora Mukherjee, @youngcenter's Jennifer Nagda, and former ICE Director Thomas Homan.

As the hearing begins, Chairman @RepCummings describes family separations as inhumane:

"I use the word inhumane for a reason. Separating children from their mothers or their fathers causes damage that may endure for a lifetime. Let that sink in. Until they die."

.@RepCummings in his opening statement calls family separations an intentional policy designed to deter immigrants from coming to the United States, citing the public statements of former DHS Secretary John Kelly.

This article is from March 2017. cnn.com/2017/03/06/pol…

.@RepCummings recounts the efforts he made in the previous Congress to address family separations, noting letters sent to DHS went ignored. He says now things are on "our watch" and subpoenas have been issued. "We just began to get [documents]." A report on these will come today.

.@RepCummings, summarizing what he's learned, notes that 18 toddlers or infants were separated from their parents for more than six months.

@itscaitlinhd at the NYTimes reported on the youngest known child, baby Constantin, separated from his parents. nytimes.com/2019/06/16/us/…

.@RepCummings notes the very important fact that many parents were sentenced only to time served for crossing the border, meaning they spent just a day or two in criminal custody, but were not reunited with their kids after release from criminal custody.

.@RepCummings points out the problem with current conditions at the border stems from the fact that "The administration is detaining thousands of people who do not need to be detained and are not required to be detained."

This is true. Release is ALWAYS a legal option.

Powerful ending: "I hope we all, as we go through this hearing, ask one basic question. My favorite saying is that our children are our living messengers we send to a future we will never see. And I ask ... how are sending these children into the future? How are we sending them?"

We move now to Rep. Jordan, the Republican Chair, who moves directly to blaming Rep. Cummings for not paying attention to the border until now, linking to Michael Cohen. "Instead of giving a platform to a convicted felon we could have come here to address the border crisis"

Rep. @Jim_Jordan attacks Democrats for not addressing a "crisis" at the border until more recently, saying Democrats have "fabricated stories of cruelty." He calls for changes to asylum laws and eliminating Flores, which stops the gov't from locking up kids for more than 20 days.

Interestingly, Rep. @Jim_Jordan says that Republican witnesses will also now testify on the first panel. @RepCummings is now explaining why members themselves will be appearing as witnesses and talking about how their trip to the border happened.

.@RepCummings explains that this first panel with Congressional witnesses will NOT have questions from members as normal, and there will not be exchanges between the witnesses.

So it appears it'll be mostly speeches then moving to panel 2.

A brief moment of comedy as @RepCummings rhetorically says "Let's applaud" the members who went down to the border to investigate, and then is immediately interrupted by members of the audience applauding despite him previously having asked the audience not to. Whoops.

Another point of order: there is a vote in the House of Representatives at 11AM, which means that the first panel will go and then everyone will disperse and come back for the second panel at a later time. So I'll try to be back, but who knows the timing.

We begin with the panel with @RepAndyBiggsAZ, who begins by talking about some of the (unarguably) great work that CBP does to break up human trafficking.

He then links this to the issue of so-called "fake families," a real, but VERY uncommon situation.

https://twitter.com/ReichlinMelnick/status/1138465079203160064

.@RepAndyBiggsAZ also mentions so-called "angel families" (a term for individuals whose family members were killed by an undocumented immigrant), bizarrely linking that to family separations. He then pivots back to overcrowding and says Dems should have addressed it earlier.

Rep. Biggs very angry at the use of the word "concentration camps" and rejects any criticism of Border Patrol for treatment of children.

It's hard to square his testimony with well-research stories of bad behavior. azcentral.com/story/news/pol…

We move now to @RepCloudTX, who like Rep. Biggs calls for eliminating many asylum protections and changing Flores to allow long-term detention of children.

Worth noting, as always, that the American Academy of Pediatrics says detaining kids hurts them. pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/139/5/…

.@RepCloudTX notes he hears from Border Patrol "there is no end in sight."

Given this issue, why has CBP not made any changes in the past five years, after large numbers of families and kids started arriving? Yes, volume is more than ever, but they've had years to prepare!

As @RepCloudTX follows up from Rep. Biggs by saying that Congress has underfunded CBP, it's worth noting the agency's budget has skyrocketed in the past 15 years. Congress keeps giving them more money and they keep asking for more! americanimmigrationcouncil.org/research/the-c…

Here's what CBP and ICE's budget have looked like over the past 16 years. We've seen major increases in budget across the agencies, almost every single year.

.@RepCloudTX says one very true thing; we should have had the foresight to see what was coming. But we did have that foresight. CBP has known for years that families and children are coming to the border, but the agency keeps doubling down on deterrence over reform.

We now move to Rep, @DebbieLesko, who like her other Republican colleagues blames families coming here on so-called asylum loopholes.

Rep. Lesko touts her role in the Arizona Senate in passing SB 1070, the "show-me-your-papers" bill that the Supreme Court struck down parts of.

Rep. @DebbieLesko links the increase in families coming to a rise in methamphetamine seized at the border. But meth flow has been increasing for years, and the majority is still through ports of entry.

Rep. @DebbieLesko points to a recent video from Tucson Sector Border Patrol to say that stations do have basic facilities. What she leaves out? They are under a COURT ORDER to do that.

https://twitter.com/ReichlinMelnick/status/1146782828966887424

As we move to @RepChipRoy, it is remarkable to note how little the Republicans are giving on even the basic idea that conditions in border facilities are bad. They have not mentioned even once the Office of Inspector General's reports confirming horrifying stories.

.@RepChipRoy calls Congress "cowardly" for not addressing the situation at the border the way he wants. Like many, he focuses on the danger migrants face in Mexico, blaming Congress for not removing incentives (like basic fundamental human rights protections like asylum).

It's also really fascinating that not a single member of the Republican panel so far has even mentioned once the idea that asylum seekers are fleeing violence and harm in their home countries. Not a single mention so far of the real dangers causing people to flee.

As Chip Roy attacks the "cowards of the swamp," he offers a solution that surely no one has ever considered before: "Take out the cartels."

Didn't know it was that easy!

We move to the Dem members now, starting with @RepEscobar, who highlights her direct connection to the border. She is the representative from El Paso, which directly borders Ciudad Juarez in Mexico. She highlights how El Paso has stepped up to help feed and shelter thousands.

.@RepEscobar touts the achievements of the local community in El Paso: "My community, with a fraction of the resources available to the federal government, has responded more strategically, thoughtfully, and compassionately than the federal government."

.@RepEscobar now moves on to the "heinous" family separation policy, noting that even "the most hardline anti-immigrant Americans" were moved by audio recorded of a weeping child who had been separated child inside a Border Patrol facility.

.@RepEscobar powerfully connects the situation in CBP custody to those in ICE custody. "There is long-term detention in ICE facilities, where in my district a group of men requesting asylum who had been detained for nearly a year became so desperate they went on a hunger strike."

Here's a story on those men and their powerful story. They were eventually released after significantly advocacy, including from @RepEscobar. thenation.com/article/ice-hu…

.@RepEscobar also discusses the horrifying nature of the so-called "Migrant Protection Protocols," the Remain in Mexico policy where people are shoved back into Mexico for court hearings. She mentions the brutal gang-rape of one woman sent back. insightcrime.org/news/brief/mex…

Now on to @AOC:

"When I was asked to testify today, I frankly didn't know where to begin. Much has been made about the fact that we have said this was a manufactured crisis; and in many ways, it is manufactured because it is wholly unnecessary."

.@AOC says "This is a manufactured crisis because the cruelty is manufactured. This is a manufactured crisis because there is no need to do this."

She also addresses smugglers, noting that CBP is actually helping smugglers through metering and MPP. True! news.vice.com/en_us/article/…

.@AOC notes reasons for different testimony today: "It feels as if we're speaking in two different worlds, and one of the reasons for that is... one of the first things we were told is that we were not allowed to speak to the migrants, that we were not allowed to talk to them."

This is a great point. Members visiting Border Patrol facilities rarely get the chance to TALK to people held in those facilities, so they only get the views of the officers of CBP.

I've talked to people in these facilities who directly contradicted what CBP told me.

.@AOC powerful highlights the difference between her testimony and the Republicans who came before her. "I believe these women."

She is near tears as she says "We cannot allow this."

Uhhhhh the audio just cut out and the video cut away and everyone is looking over at the side and is standing up. What just happened??

So it appears someone just collapsed, and Representative Green went over to that person and said they'll be okay. Guess they just fainted. Wow.

After brief disruption, @AOC says "The thing we need most is not resources, it's policy change. We need to change our metering policies. We need to change our detention policies."

We move to @RashidaTlaib who asks her colleagues to change their wording. "First, no one is illegal. That term is derogatory now because it dehumanizes people." She suggests other terms which don't dehumanize.

.@RashidaTlaib tears up as she mentions Jakelin Caal, who died of sepsis in CBP custody. She says "Mr. Speaker, we do have a crisis at this border. It is one of morality."

.@RashidaTlaib: "I've been so deeply haunted by the unforgettable image of a 4-year-old boy coming up to me through a glass door of a cell he was in with a number of other children, ask me in Spanish where his papa was."

She follows up: "I ask you and beg you not to look away."

Rep. Tlaib says that last point as she shows a picture a child drew of children behind bars. npr.org/2019/07/09/739…

Rep. Tlaib now talking about the extreme awfulness of overcrowding and lengthy stays in CBP custody, including a pregnant woman held in a cell for 27 days.

Here's the OIG report confirming extreme length of stays and "dangerous overcrowding." oig.dhs.gov/sites/default/…

Rep. @RashidaTlaib directly contradicts Republicans who say this is just a problem of Congress not funding CBP enough, saying that agents told her directly that this isn't a matter of funding, it's a matter of policies. They don't want to more money just to care for more kids.

Now finally on to Rep. @AyannaPressley, who begins by refusing to call those at the border voiceless. She says that every person has a voice, but institutions don't always listen.

Like her colleagues she discusses the mental trauma observing conditions at the border caused her.

Rep. @AyannaPressley says that families need "trauma support, case workers, clean water, adequate and nutritious food. Instead they have received a level of degradation we should be ashamed of occurring on American soil."

Like her colleagues, Rep. @AyannaPressley's testimony is particularly powerful because she is telling the stories of people who "wanted to be treated like a human being" and had not been.

This is the "two worlds" discussed by @AOC—CBP often acts as if these people are lying.

Rep. @AyannaPressley is now giving a powerful speech about people who still saw the American dream and begged for forgiveness so that they could be allowed to take part in the asylum process.

I've seen this in person. Having an grown man beg and plead with you for a chance is...

And with that, we get to a break as they transition to the second panel. There's a vote in the House at 11:30, so it looks like they may try to fit in some testimony now or just recess the hearing until after the vote.

We're now back with Panel 2, which includes as @RepCummings notes, two Inspectors General from DHS and HHS, as well as two advocates (Elora Mukherjee and Jennifer Nagdo) and former ICE director Tom Homan, who left ICE two years ago.

We now move directly to Acting DHS OIG Jennifer Costello. Before she starts, here's a thread on the El Paso OIG report.

https://twitter.com/ReichlinMelnick/status/1134506929542352897

And as Acting IG begins by testifying about the "dangerous overcrowding" in CBP detention, here's another thread on the OIG's report that found terrible conditions in the Rio Grande Valley sector facilities.

https://twitter.com/ReichlinMelnick/status/1146109945236086784

Acting IG Costello says conditions their inspectors encountered were "far more grievous" than any previous unannounced inspections carried out by government watchdogs.

She notes some children under the age of 7 had been held for more than two weeks.

Costello notes children in some facilities didn't get hot meals until the week her inspectors arrived at the facilities, that kids didn't get showers or a change of clothes, and that because of overcrowding some kids with illnesses weren't able to be quarantined.

Costello does note that CBP agents are working as best they can to address conditions. "Border Patrol requires immediate assistance to manage the overcrowding in its facilities. CBP facilities are not designed to hold individuals for lengthy periods of time."

Costello says that @DHSOIG is beginning new work looking at the root causes of the conditions in CBP facilities that violate standards and laws. I look forward to reading that report.

We now move to Jennifer Maxwell, Inspector General for HHS. She says that last summer, over 200 OIG staff went out to facilities caring for kids across the entire country, and anticipates publishing reports on this work in the next few months.

For those a little unfamiliar with the exact specifics of what the difference are between CBP, ICE, and HHS, here's a brief explainer from a thread I wrote a little while ago.

https://twitter.com/ReichlinMelnick/status/1146426784239509505

IG Maxwell notes that the number of children separated by the Trump administration is likely far higher than ~2,400 number originating from the Ms. L lawsuit, and notes that the Court in that case expanded the lawsuit and the government is working to ID more children separated.

She says "It's worth noting" that the government said it would take 1-2 years to identify these additional children, and says this is indicative of the serious government failures to track those children who were previous separated, and talks about how HHS's current tracking.

"DHS sometimes provides limited information about the reasons for the separations," noting many parents have been separated for criminal history where DHS didn't track the charge, or where criminal charges were minor or unrelated to child welfare (e.g. marijuana possession).

Now to Elora Mukherjee, who directs the immigrants rights clinic at Columbia Law, and notes 12 years of advocacy and over 1,000 hours in immigration detention working with kids. She went to the Clint facility. Here's some of the things she saw. bbc.com/news/av/world-…

Elora Mukherjee discusses the filthy conditions she observed children in at the Clint facility, including children wearing clothing covered in vomit, break milk, and mucus, many of whom had not had a shower in weeks or been able to brush their teeth or change their clothes.

She discusses one 7-year-old who couldn't even repeat her name, just saying "I'm scared, I'm scared, I'm scared" over and over again. She says it broke her heart to have to return this child to the guards.

One child couldn't even speak. A newborn had been detained for 7 days.

Elora Mukherjee says in Clint she met a teenage boy who had been separated from her mother 16 days before. CBP confirmed that not only had his mother been separated from him, but that she had already been released, and CBP had made no efforts to reconnect them.

Of one kid: "Through his sobs, he managed to say he had a brother. I had to break out of my role as a lawyer. I let him sit on my lap. I wiped his tears, I wiped his nose, and I rubbed his back, and I teared up too. Here was a child, the same age as my son, stuck in a hellhole."

Elora Mukherjee's testimony is incredibly powerful. I don't know how many Republican members are still in the room but I think it's going to be very hard for them to claim that the conditions in Clint are still unsubstantiated without basically calling her a liar.

And with that, @RepCummings says that the hearing is recessed for a vote, and that the hearing will return at 1:15PM.

Unfortunately I have to get some work done this afternoon so I don't think I'll be able to come back to this thread after that, but thanks for following me!

FYI - the hearing is now back on, starting nearly an hour after expected. I won't be live-tweeting it (lots of other work to do), but if you want to watch it yourself, here's a link again!
oversight.house.gov/legislation/he…

Just one fun thing though: sometimes members sit in the Chair's seat even though they are not the chair. If you aren't watching on CSPAN and seeing displays of who's speaking, that can be confusing.

This, for example, is not Elijah Cummings.

I'm listening to this hearing in the background and have to correct Tom Homan. He said family detention stops families from coming. He says that a 2015 decision making clear that Flores applied to kids in families led to an increase in families.

That is NOT what the data shows.

Tom Homan just said something utterly false, that the "absentia rates for families is out of control" and many don't appear in court.

This is something I have debunked time and time and time again. Homan is just utterly wrong.

immigrationimpact.com/2019/01/30/asy…

Rep. @GerryConnolly goes OFF on those trying to ignore bad conditions.

"The equivocation, the enabling, the rationalization, is inexcusable. Is there no limit to what you will justify in this administration when it comes to the mistreatment of our fellow human beings?"

Rep. @GerryConnolly shouts at Tom Homan, who was clearly looking like he wanted to interrupt the questioning after Homan indicated he wanted to get a word in: "You're not at the border. You're in a hearing now. It's my time."

Homan hasn't been on the job for 2 years.

Homan again falsely claims that "absentia rates are sky high," then cites an utter lie that 90% of families failed to appear in court,

Homan says "the numbers are the numbers," and he's right. So here are some ACCURATE numbers. A brief summary:

A study of all families released from detention between 2001 and 2016 shows that 86% of families appeared for all court proceedings, compared to 81% of all individuals released from detention. americanimmigrationcouncil.org/research/detai…

A study on all families placed on EOIR's accelerated family unit docket from Nov 2018 to May 31, 2019 revealed that 85.5% of families appeared for their first hearing, and 80.9% of families had appeared for all hearings. trac.syr.edu/immigration/re…

According to my own personal analysis of immigration court data directly from @DOJ_EOIR's website, from 2008-2018, just 12.5 percent of cases begun because an asylum seeker was found to have a credible fear ended because the asylum seeker missed court. aclu.org/legal-document…

The 90% figure Tom Homan used is just wrong. It is a bad metric that I have debunked repeatedly over the course of the past three months. Do not repeat it or believe it. The data shows the exact opposite.

https://twitter.com/ReichlinMelnick/status/1118644928479842304

I've actually been cited in two separate Washington Post fact checks on appearance rates because I've been working on this specific issue for months now. On the 90% claim in particular, the Post gave it Four Pinocchios (see my explanation in there). washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/…

On the flaws in the government's measurements, which are largely responsible for the claims of Homan and others who claim that most people miss court (they really don't!), see my comments in this other fact check. washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/…

I also want to resurface this chart, which I generated and which I've published previously, which shows that over the past decade, only a small minority of cases begun in immigration court (<20% in every year except 2014) have ended because the immigrant missed court.