Amid news of immigrant children being separated from their parents, Nevada Senator Catherine Cortez Masto visited the U.S.-Mexico border this week to see where detained immigrants are being held.
"I wanted to see for myself what was going on," she told KNPR's State of Nevada. "I wanted to talk to the agencies that were interacting with these families and taking these children and see the conditions they’re being held in ... and then what’s the plan for reunifying them.”
However, her first stop at a so-called "tender-age facility" where very young children were being housed did not go as planned.
“I was refused,” she said. “Not only did they not let me in, did not open the glass door where you can look in and see the receptionist ... and then said someone would come out and talk to me soon.”
She said someone came out, refused to talk to her and instead gave her the name and number of the communications director for the parent company of the facility.
Cortez Masto said the facility is contracted by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which means it gets federal dollars. She believes anyone in the federal government should be allowed access, especially a member of the U.S. Senate.
Next, the senator went to the detention facility where parents separated from their children are being held.
“My goal was then to see, particularly in ICE custody, how these parents and adults are being handled and talk to some of the adults,” she said, “but the facility I walked into was no different than the prison systems that we have in Nevada that I’ve walked into. That’s what it looks like.”
ICE and Border Patrol took her through the facility and allowed her to talk to six mothers, whose children had been taken away. Cortez Masto said their stories were heartbreaking.
One woman who was traveling with her 5-year-old daughter said she felt relieved when she saw border patrol agents, and flagged them down, not knowing her child would be taken away.
Most of the women told the senator that they've had no contact with their children after being separated and they don't know where they are. The women who have been able to find their children have found out that they're in facilities in New York or New Jersey, while they linger in a detention center in Texas.
They peppered Cortez Masto with questions about what was going to happen to them and most importantly if she knew anything about the whereabouts of their children.
“When I walked in, there was just this atmosphere of they were beaten down, they were sad, they were desperate to find out where their kids were — that’s all,” she said.
After seeing the detention facility, Cortez Masto visited the main processing center. She said there families were allowed to stay together to a degree.
For example, teenagers were taken from their families, and a father could only stay together with his sons but not his daughters because she said the people were separated by gender and by age.
“It is the most surreal thing you’ve seen for humans,” she said. “I don’t know how we as a country and as Americans, we would allow something like this to happen.”
In addition to the trauma of the children and their parents, Cortez Masto said the border patrol and Health and Human Services staff dealing with the situation were not prepared for it.
“I think this administration has to stop the zero-tolerance policy,” she said.
Once the policy is changed, Cortez Masto said the agencies involved need to coordinate reunifying children with their parents.
However, she says that will be extremely difficult given that she doesn't believe the Trump Administration ever planned to reunite parents and children.
U.S. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto
