Rep. Kathleen Rice (D-N.Y.) said Monday that there is no reason for federal authorities to lose track of nearly 1,500 immigrant children who crossed the border on their own.
“There should be a way to track these people. They know where they’re going, they don’t just release people into the ether,” Rice told CNN’s “New Day.”
“There is no reason for this to happen.”
“These are the defenseless kids who are fleeing violent circumstances in their home countries coming here to be taken care of, and we are losing them,” Rice added.
The Trump administration has been heavily criticized after it was reported that the Department of Health and Human Services lost track of nearly 1,500 unaccompanied minors in U.S. custody.
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Rice noted there are bills in Congress that would address the issue by improving border security.
She said the conservative Freedom Caucus is “holding [Speaker] Paul Ryan [R-Wis.] hostage” and blocking votes on such legislation.
“I think he is feeling pressure from the Freedom Caucus, they support one particular bill that does not have the support of even moderate Republicans. … So when I hear people say this is all the Democrat’s doing, we literally have no control over anything,” Rice said.
On Saturday, President Trump called for pressure on Democrats to end to a “horrible law” that separates migrant children from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border and repeated his call to build a border wall.