Statement on Abuse of Children at Southern Border

New York City—In response to the Trump Administration’s mistreatment of refugee children at the southern border, Human Rights First’s Eleanor Acer issued the following statement:

The Trump Administration has demonstrated that it cannot be trusted to act with basic decency. Congress’s priority needs to be holding immediate oversight hearings on child abuse at the border.

Our asylum laws were designed to prevent people from suffering horrors, but the Trump Administration is inflicting suffering—with children as the victims. The president’s only answer is to change asylum laws so he can rain down more cruelty on children and families seeking protection.

Instead of more chaos, cruelty, and mismanagement, the United States needs real solutions.

Last week Human Rights First, in partnership with more than a dozen refugee and regional human rights organizations, released a new blueprint offering concrete steps to manage the humanitarian crisis at the U.S. southern border and to address the damage the Trump Administration’s mismanagement of it has caused.