NEW MEXICO SENATE PRO TEM MARY KAY PAPEN
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 19, 2018
CONTACT: Senate Pro Tem Office at 575/993.8332
NM SENATE PRO TEM PAPEN CALLS FOR END OF TRUMP POLICY SEPARATING MIGRANT CHILDREN FROM PARENTS, BLASTS GOV. MARTINEZ’S SUPPORT FOR IT
(Las Cruces, NM) – The Senate Pro Tem of New Mexico, Senator Mary Kay Papen (D -Doña Ana), today called for the immediate end of the new federal policy under President Trump separating migrant children from their parents who enter the U.S. seeking asylum. After visiting the federal facility in Tornillo, Texas, where hundreds of immigrant children are being detained, some in tents, Papen expressed her serious concern over the emotional and mental scars that separation by U.S. border officials will leave on these vulnerable minors for the rest of their lives. She also strongly criticized New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez for giving support to the Trump policy.
“The separation of innocent and vulnerable children from their parents as a policy of the United States government is cruel, and it is terrible. I am calling on leaders in Congress and across this country, and ordinary citizens, to demand that it end immediately. As an advocate for people struggling with mental health issues, I fear that these thousands of children will suffer life-long emotional damage by what is being done in our name, just a short drive from New Mexico. It is long overdue that we get humane, common-sense and bipartisan immigration reform that protects our borders, but that rejects the cruel practice of the Trump Administration’s co-called ‘zero-tolerance’ policy. It is wrong to use children as pawns,” said Papen.
It is reported that 2,000 migrant children who have been separated from their parents seeking asylum since April are being detained in federal holding facilities across the southern border. Some of the children are infants and toddlers.
“Governor Martinez, who did so much harm to the behavioral health system of care in New Mexico when she shut down 15 providers in 2013, should be more sensitive to the effects of the policy she is now endorsing. Her support for this cruel policy and its practice, being carried out on the doorstep of our state, is appalling. She should be ashamed,” Papen added.
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