By Natalie Andrews and Louise Radnofsky
WASHINGTON—House Democrats voted to require the Trump administration to turn over documents on the policy that separated children from parents at the U.S.-Mexico border.
In its first subpoena-related vote of the administration since Democrats took control of the House, the House Oversight committee moved Tuesday to require the Departments of Justice, Health and Human Services, and Homeland Security to deliver documents regarding the Trump administration’s zero-tolerance policy last year on illegal immigration, which led to the separation of more than 2,700 children.
Democrats on the committee said they have requested information for seven months from the agencies, including a request earlier this month. While the agencies have sent some documents, the Democrats said, the administration hasn’t fulfilled the requests of the committee, which is asking for specific information about each child separated from a parent or guardian at the border.
“I did not make this decision lightly,” said committee Chairman Elijah Cummings (D., Md.) at Tuesday’s meeting. “When our own government rips vulnerable children, toddlers, and even infants from the arms of their mothers and fathers with no plan to reunite them, that is government-sponsored child abuse.”
All Democratic lawmakers on the panel voted for the subpoenas, along with two Republicans, Reps. Chip Roy of Texas and Justin Amash of Michigan. Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, the top Republican on the panel, said the decision was hasty.
“Your decision will disincentivize entities from providing documents on a voluntary basis,” Mr. Jordan said to Mr. Cummings. “They will just wait now for the inevitable subpoena.”
A spokeswoman for HHS said the agency had communicated “regularly and in good faith” with the committee and had already supplied 792 pages of documents related to its request. DHS and the Justice Department didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
Democrats have said they would use their new control of the House of Representatives to re-examine the zero-tolerance policy that resulted in the separation last year of thousands of children from the adults with whom they arrived at the southern border, before the Trump administration declared it was reversing course.
At a House Judiciary Committee hearing also on Tuesday, Democratic lawmakers questioned top officials from the U.S. Border Patrol, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Justice Department and HHS over the implementation of the policy, including which officials were aware of it and the preparations they made.
Democrats described the policy as “barbaric,” “scandalous” and undermining the U.S.’s “moral standing in the world.” Republican lawmakers countered by asking the officials about possible justifications for separation, including the prospect that U.S. border policies were providing an incentive for more adults to bring children on dangerous journeys from Central America to the U.S. border.
The zero-tolerance policy was implemented last year in response to a surge of largely Central American immigrants fleeing gang violence at home who crossed the border and sought asylum in the U.S. Under the policy, anyone caught crossing the border illegally would be criminally prosecuted. Because laws forbade children from being kept in jail, they were separated. Previous practice had generally been to release adults with children into the U.S. together while their cases were adjudicated.
Mr. Trump stopped the zero-tolerance policy after a public outcry, but confusion has continued. Last month, officials at the HHS inspector general’s office said that the federal systems tracking children who arrived with adults were inadequate and informal, and that the policy appeared to have been in place before and after the period generally known. As a result, the inspector general said, the number of children taken into custody by HHS and subsequently released is likely thousands more than the 2,700 figure released at the time, and the total will likely never be known.
Since the policy ended, the Trump administration has sought to detain families together while they wait to appear in court.
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