This #InternationalWomensDay I’m thinking of all the women who carry their children across borders just to keep them safe.
📷: @dkitwood @GettyImages The women who walk for days towards the unknown so their kids can stay alive.
#Syria 📷: Rodi Said / @Reuters

N is hiding in Kabul with his wife, daughter, and 2 other families. I'm protecting his identity for their safety. He's spent years in education work, including projects with the US govt and US institutions. His org was targeted by the Taliban recently. Here's what he told me... When the Taliban entered Kabul, "it came like a storm. it happened all of a sudden. No officials gave us any time to prepare, or take care of our staff or students."

Because they all lived in housing associated w/ the education org, "we thought it was wise to evacuate and move"

As the Taliban seize control of Afghanistan, #MarkFrerichs, the last American hostage, is still in their custody. The US did not negotiate his release before withdrawing troops.

NEW statement today from Frerichs' sister 👇🏾 "Please remember that my brother, Mark Frerichs, is a hostage of the Taliban. We want all US troops home safely, but my brother should be able to come home too."
-Charlene Cakora, sister of Mark Frerichs, the last American hostage in Afghanistan.

I’m at a Loudoun County school board meeting. Packed room. A debate over critical race theory in schools has divided this community in recent weeks. Tonight, for the first time in the pandemic, the public was allowed back in to these meetings. Protestors started gathering outside long before the meeting began. Parents who oppose the district’s equity efforts as they’ve been rolled out are organizing to oust school board members.

Alejandro "Ale" Mayorkas is testifying on Capitol Hill today, as Biden's pick to lead the Department of Homeland Security - the 3rd largest federal agency.

It's not his first confirmation hearing -- previously nominated by Obama as Dep Sec in 2013, confirmed in 2014. Mayorkas, unlike some Senators in the hearing, has kept his mask on the entire time so far -- delivering his opening statement, and even now as he begins to take questions.

Last year we took the girls to the 9/11 memorial and explained to them as best we could what it all meant. What had happened there.

I wanted them to understand how quickly things changed. How their mama changed. How this country came together after one of its darkest days... This day always hits me hard.
I was just out of school. Just a few weeks into my first job as a journalist. It changed how I saw the world, and my place in it. Each time I go back to Ground Zero it comes back to me.

.@RepAdamSchiff closes his opening statement quoting Benjamin Franklin at the close of the Constitutional Convention, when asked what sort of country the US would be.

"A Republic, if you can keep it."

#ImpeachmentHearingsPBS #ImpeachmentPBS @RepAdamSchiff .@DevinNunes attacking Democrats' credibility and intentions in his opening statement.

Dismisses #impeachmenthearings as a "sham," a "televised theatrical performance," the "low rent Ukrainian sequel" to "the Russia hoax."

Also defends Pres. Trump's firing of Amb Yovanovitch.

NEW @DHSOIG report on overcrowding in Border Patrol detention facilities is now out. oig.dhs.gov/sites/default/…
Highlights follow... Inspectors visited 5 facilities and 2 ports of entry in the Rio Grande Valley (RGV) & found "serious overcrowdin."
-Border Patrol holding 8,000 people @ time of visit
-3,400 held longer than 72 hrs (standard detention time)

NEW: two families are suing the Trump administration for harm suffered as a result of #FamilySeparation. Both fathers were forcibly separated from their children for weeks, and both children allegedly suffered abuse while in US govt custody. According to the filing:
One father APF (Dad1) & his son OPD, 7, were separated between May 15 & 21, 2018 after crossing into Arizona. They claim to be fleeing persecution in Guatemala and sought medical attention for OPD, who'd had surgery when he was 6 for a heart condition.

House Judiciary Cmte holds 10am hearing on the Trump administration's #FamilySeparation policy. Officials from Border Patrol, ICE, DOJ's immigration courts, & HHS - including Scott Lloyd, who used to oversee the care/custody of migrant kids, will testify. Follow here for updates From 2017-2018 Lloyd ran the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) in HHS. ORR is responsible for the care of unaccompanied children in US custody. His tenure @ ORR overlapped with the Trump administration's Zero Tolerance/Family Separation policy.

New report from HHS watchdog group on #separatedchildren in US govt custody has this stunning takeaway: "thousands" of kids may have been separated at the border *before* administration began tracking. In other words:the 2,737 # administration provided could be massive UNDERcount The court order forcing the administration to reunite separated kids came down June 26, 2018. Before that, the agency responsible for the care/custody of migrant kids (ORR) saw a 'steep increase' in the # of separated kids coming into their shelters.

I cover immigration. I like numbers.
I brought the two together in this thread, for anyone interested in separating facts from feelings.
All sources cited at the end. Our country has more immigrants than any other country in the world, and just about every country in the world is represented here.

Good morning y'all. I want to update you on the story of Angelica and Sofi. My colleague, @frankncarlson and I met them in a Juarez shelter on Tuesday night. Angelica is Sofi's grandmother. She's raised Sofi since Sofi was 4-months old. She was 3 when we met her this week. We first told their story on Wednesday night's @NewsHour . Watch the piece to hear Angelica tell her own story: pbs.org/newshour/show/…