Press Release
Published on June 25, 2019
New York City—In response to reports that Customs and Border Protection Acting Commissioner John Sanders will step down, Human Rights First’s Jennifer Quigley released the following statement:
Trump Administration officials need to be held accountable for the disgraceful response to the situation at the border and we can only hope that, in the wake of Sanders’s departure, others responsible face the consequences of their actions. But this is only the tip of the iceberg. We need a full accounting of how children came to be caged in filthy and unsafe conditions.
It is clear that Congress must step in and defund child abuse. Right now as representatives work on a supplemental appropriations bill they must provide money to the Office of Refugee Resettlement to care for refugee children and create standards of care for those in government custody that would prohibit Customs and Border Patrol from treating children with cruelty.
Congress should also immediately hold oversight hearings into the administration’s abuse of children in detention.
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.
