House Democrats to Visit Immigrant Detention Facility in San Diego Area
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi was expected to arrive in San Diego today to join San Diego Rep. Juan Vargas and about a dozen other Democrats in visiting at least one immigration detention facility housing migrant children who have been separated from their families or arrived in the country unaccompanied.
The visit by the highest-ranking House Democrat -- which was organized by the Congressional Hispanic Caucus -- comes in response to the controversial ''zero tolerance'' prosecution policy being implemented by the Department of Homeland Security.
The policy aims to prosecute all suspected border-crossers, including adults traveling with children. Federal authorities said Friday that government officials had separated 1,995 children from parents facing criminal prosecution for unlawfully crossing the border over a six-week period that ended last month.
Trump has repeatedly falsely claimed that Democrats are to blame for separating immigrant children from their families, though it is his own administration's policy to separate families.
Former First Lady Laura Bush wrote an opinion piece published yesterday in the Washington Post in which she criticized the policy and
referred to it as ''immoral.''
''Our government should not be in the business of warehousing children in converted box stores or making plans to place them in tent cities in the desert outside of El Paso,'' Bush wrote.
Rep. Scott Peters, D-San Diego, spoke on the House floor Thursday to demand an end to the policy.
''In our country, family is an institution,'' Peters said. ''Today, family -- that concept -- is being torn apart and challenged at our own borders.''
Editorial Note: The photos above were released last week. They were provided to KCET by the Administration for Children and Families at HHS.
