He was nowhere to be found when the Obama administration processed unaccompanied minor aliens through Southwest Key’s Tucson facility, but on Friday Rep. Raúl Grijalva put on a show before and after he toured the facility. Now, he is outraged that the recently arrived children are in the shelters, which he complained were “secretive.”
The secretive nature of the shelters has not changed since the border surge of 2014. What has changed is the occupant of the White House.
Grijalva told reporters that of the 300 children currently at the shelter, approximately 79 were separated from their parents at the border. However fails to mention that because so many of the children are being trafficked by adults posing as parents, some children have been separated from the adults they arrive with at the border. The children are separated until the parental-child relationship is validated.
Caseworkers from Southwest Key said to the Arizona Daily Independent during the Obama administration, that they felt certain that in too many cases, they were forced to release the children to cartel members posing as family members.
According to Cronkite News, “‘Grijalva was vague in describing conditions inside the facility but said the rooms closely resemble those in a hotel. The children smiled at him and said hello,’ said Grijalva, an immigration advocate who’s among the voices calling for the abolishment of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.”
Cronkite News reports that Grijalva’s Friday visit “came a month after the congressman requested a tour of the facility.”
Remarkably, despite the fact that Grijalva and other leaders ignored demands by child advocates that Southwest Key be investigated in 2014, on Friday he “assailed the Federal government’s lack of information about the facility.”
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