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DPCC Co-Chair Jeffries: Trump Administration Continues to Create Chaos, Crisis, and Confusion

June 25, 2018

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DPCC Co  Chair Jeffries: Trump Administration Continues to Create Chaos, Crisis, and Confusion

WASHINGTON, DC – Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, Co-Chair of the House Democratic Policy & Communications Committee (DPCC) and a member of the Judiciary Committee, appeared on MSNBC Live to discuss his visit to a local detention facility following President Trump's zero-tolerance policy that has separated children from their parents at the border. Below are excerpts from the interview and a link to the video.

Click here to watch the video

"There were a total of seven Members of Congress and delegation, led by the lead Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, Jerry Nadler. We had prior authorization from the individuals as well as their attorneys to meet with five detainees. Three of whom were initially put into custody at the U.S./Mexico border and then separated from their children. We wanted to get clarification from them as to what exactly had happened along their journey. The privately run facility, this is the Elizabeth I.C.E. detention center, scrambled upon our arrival.

"There was no one from I.C.E., from the U.S. government actually present, all contractors – didn't really know what was going on. Even though (we had) authorization we waited for an hour and a half until we finally got in. We were not going anywhere until we had the opportunity to have a meaningful conversation with the detainees, which we accomplished.

"This visit was exhibit "a" of what's happening across the country and what's been emblematic of the Trump administration from day one: chaos, crisis and confusion. And the American people are the ones suffering as a result of it. In this particular incidence, it's immigration. But we've seen it with their fake infrastructure plan, we've seen it with their failed health care effort. We've seen it with the inability to resolve this trade issue and create good paying jobs, higher wages for the American people.

"Now it's playing out in the immigration context in ways that are un-American, unconscionable and unacceptable. Ripping children away from their parents, spreading them out across the country and even though there was this so-called executive order – no real plan to bring those families back together. That's shameful."

"We are going to continue to press the case and hopefully my colleagues on the other side of the aisle will join us. We've seen far too often a willingness to put party ahead of country and defer to Donald Trump no matter how outrageous his behavior. We are going to continue to remind our friends on the other side of the aisle that they don't work for Donald Trump. They work for the American people. We are a separate and coequal branch of government. The American people deserve answers. We are the body that has the capacity to deliver it. We have to do that in a unified fashion.

"You can point to examples where Republicans disagreed with George Bush and Democrats disagreed with Barack Obama. But in this particular situation, we have an outrageous president who has delivered nothing but a raw deal to the American people. We as Democrats are going to offer A Better Deal. The only way for that to change at the end of the day – many of us have concluded – is for the American people to hand the keys to the government to House Democrats in November so we can have checks and balances and some semblance of oversight and accountability directed at an out of control executive branch."