McEachin on separation of families at United States-Mexico border

Congressman A. Donald McEachin (VA-04) issued this statement on the separation of families at the United States-Mexico border.

“I am horrified and disappointed that we would separate children from parents at border crossings, and then house them far from family and homes. These children are innocent. They do not choose to cross the border, legally or illegally. They are carried, the young ones literally, by their parents only to be wrenched from the arms of the adults they love, taken to a strange place with administrators who don’t know their language, their background or even necessarily their names.

“It is un-American and unacceptable. Surely, we can find a better, more human resolution to illegal border crossings, than to rip children from their parents and lock them up for interminable lengths. Surely as a country, as a land of principle, as a people who value family and children, we can find a way to resolve this that allows families to stay together. Instead, we punish and penalize the innocent. This must stop and, if the president won’t, then Congress simply must.”