Congress cracks down on Trump team's 'government-funded child abuse'

Trump administration officials didn’t bother to keep proper records when they ripped thousands of migrant children from their families, and they also haven’t bothered to respond to a request from Congress for information about what happened.

But now, Congress is going to make them respond.

The House Oversight Committee voted Tuesday to subpoena three departments led by Trump appointees over their failure to release records on the administration’s decision to separate immigrant families. The measure passed 25 to 11, with all Democrats on the committee and only two Republicans voting in favor.

The Departments of Justice, Homeland Security, and Health and Human Services were ordered to produce information that was requested 7 months ago. They haven’t done so.

Not only has the administration continued to drag its feet on reuniting families and assessing the whereabouts of abducted children — it’s also still separating children from their families despite promises to stop and despite an order from a judge.

The plight of these detained children is a “national emergency,” said Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings.

“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,” Cummings said. “It is our job to step in and protect those children. Further delay is not an option.”

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), the top-ranking Republican on the committee, complained that Democrats were rushing — even though the administration has already had 7 months to hand over the information requested.

Jordan, who has been embroiled in an abuse scandal of his own, and other congressional Republicans have set themselves up as Trump’s defenders, rather than looking out for the interests of families and the United States.

Officials like Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen have been Trump’s foot soldiers in implementing the abhorrent policy that created the crisis. Previous presidents did not prosecute all border crossers, which triggers child separation, but Trump chose to break with tradition and do so.

Soon he had a national and international crisis on his hands, as the world raged against the administration for abusing and traumatizing small children by caging them and taking their parents away from them.

Even as Trump stonewalls Congress and tries to distance himself from the mess he made, he is allowing the crisis to continue to this day.

But now that the House is no longer controlled by Trump’s Republican co-conspirators, Democrats are using the power given to them by voters to try to uncover the truth and reunite families.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.