Udall, Heinrich To Hold Hearing On Treatment Of Children At The Border
WASHINGTON, D.C. – On Tuesday, July 23 at 12:45 p.m. MT/ 2:45 p.m. ET, U.S. Senators Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich will join Senators Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) in leading a Democratic Policy and Communications Committee hearing, “America Speaks Out: Stop Trump’s Cruel Treatment of Children at the Border.” The Senators will hear testimony from medical and legal experts who have witnessed the terrible conditions at the border firsthand, including Imelda Maynard, senior attorney at Catholic Charities of Southern New Mexico, among other witnesses. This hearing will take place in the face of Senate Republicans' refusal to hold a hearing on conditions at the southern border.
The hearing will be livestreamed here.
Recently, Senators Heinrich and Udall sent a letter to Chairman Ron Johnson and Ranking Member Gary Peters of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee to hold a hearing on standards for U.S. Border Patrol detention facilities.
The Senators have also introduced legislation to help ensure humane and safe conditions and treatment for people in Customs and Border Protection (CBP) custody. The Humanitarian Standards for Individuals in Customs and Border Protection Custody Act, S. 2135, would require CBP to meet the basic health and medical needs of people in its care by conducting health screenings and delivering emergency care; providing humane short-term detention conditions; and ensuring access to adequate water, nutrition, and sanitation.
Washington, D.C. - Tuesday, July 23, 2019
WHO: U.S. Senators Tom Udall, Martin Heinrich, Mazie Hirono, Jeff Merkley and other Senate Democrats
Imelda Maynard, border community resident and Senior Attorney at Catholic Charities of Southern New Mexico, a non-profit that provides pro bono and low cost legal services to immigrant families in southern New Mexico and West Texas. It is one of only a few non-profits in the Southern New Mexico/West Texas region that routinely travels to Ciudad Juarez, Mexico to work with migrant families returned to Mexico under the Trump administration's "MPP/Remain in Mexico" policy.
Dr. Amy Cohen, M.D., child psychiatrist and Physicians for Human Rights Asylum Network member. She has served on the medical advisory board of the National Center for Youth Law since 2014 and as a medical consultant to Flores counsel since 2018. Dr. Cohen has extensive experience evaluating children in Office of Refugee Resettlement custody, as well as conditions of confinement in custody, most recently in Homestead, FL.
Hope Frye, legal expert and Executive Director of Project Lifeline, a nonprofit exclusively dedicated to education about and advocacy for detained immigrant children during confinement and post-release. On behalf of Flores counsel, she regularly leads monitoring visits into CBP, ORR and ICE facilities detaining immigrant children. In this capacity, she has supervised legal and medical teams interviewing hundreds of children.
Michelle Brané, policy expert at the Women’s Refugee Commission who will discuss inhumane conditions and overcrowding at border as well as the Women’s Refugee Commission recent report on the Family Case Management Program and alternatives to detention.
WHAT: The Senators will hold a hearing on the treatment of children at the border.
WHEN: 12:45 p.m. MT/ 2:45 p.m. ET
WHERE: SVC-208/209, U.S. Capitol, Washington, D.C.
LIVESTREAM: https://www.facebook.com/USSenateDemocrats/
