Press Releases

Rep. Don Beyer today called for the resignation of Kirstjen Nielsen, Secretary of Homeland Security in the Trump Administration.

Beyer said:

“Yesterday I witnessed firsthand the cruelty being inflicted upon people seeking asylum in the United States by our own government. The distraught fathers I met at a detention facility represented only two of the thousands of families which have suffered under the Trump Administration’s family separation policy, but their stories were deeply disturbing.

Both fathers had been separated from their young children for months without being able to even speak to them, a hardship I cannot imagine as a parent. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials I met at their detention center had not been provided basic family details about these men and other detainees by Customs and Border Patrol, which apprehended them. Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen administers both agencies, within the Department of Homeland Security, and she is ultimately responsible for the inhumane treatment caused by her own failure of leadership.

Secretary Nielsen has become the public face of an immoral and deeply unpopular policy. At the same time, she has strained Americans’ trust in government by repeatedly denying that the family separation policy existed, even as that policy was touted by her colleagues in the White House and brandished by President Trump and Attorney General Sessions.

The time has come for Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen to resign. If she will not resign, she should be fired by the President.”

Rep.  Beyer visited an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) affiliated facility yesterday, where he met with Carlos and Mario (last names withheld for their protection), fathers of a 7-year-old boy and a 5-year-old girl, who had been separated from their children without contact for months. More details of that visit are available here.