Sen. Angus King of Maine fired a broadside against the Trump administration’s family separation policy on the Senate floor on Monday afternoon. In a speech peppered with quotes from the bible and historical allusions, King blasted the policy that has led to more than 2,300 children being taken from their parents and held in detention centers over the last six weeks.
“Let’s call it what it is. It is literally taking children hostage to be a bargaining chip in a legislative negotiation,” said King. “The law does not require separating children from their parents. This is a policy that was adopted by this administration in April and implemented in May. This is not required by the law. This is a policy decision and it can be rescinded by a phone call from the president.”
King defended the families fleeing violence and seeking asylum at the southern border.
“This country was built on asylum seekers. The Pilgrims were asylum seekers. The Catholics who came to Maryland were asylum seekers. The Irish who came here as a result of a famine were asylum seekers. The Jews who came here in the 30’s and 40’s during the period of the Holocaust were asylum seekers – and I should say that one of the darkest periods of this country’s history was the turning away of the U.S.S. Saint Louis in the late 30’s where a third of their population of Jewish people went back to Europe and died in the Holocaust,” said King.
He also took aim at arguments that the extreme policy of “keeping children in cages” will deter future asylum seekers.
“‘We’ll torture you if you come across the border.’ That would be a deterrent, but it doesn’t make it right,” said King.
King is an original co-sponsor of the Keep Families Together Act, which would prohibit the Department of Homeland Security from separating children from their parents. Maine’s other U.S. Senator, Susan Collins, opposes the bill.
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