WASHINGTON – Responding to the House Judiciary Committee releasing the findings of its 21-month investigation into the development and execution of the Trump Administration’s family separation policy, which resulted in more than 2,500 migrant children becoming separated from their parents, Denise Bell, the researcher for refugee and migrant rights at Amnesty International USA said:
“Today’s report only confirms what this administration’s immigration policies have shown: cruelty was always the point. This administration’s deliberate policy to separate families inflicted severe mental suffering — all in order to deter people from seeking safety or to coerce them into giving up. This is called torture, and there must be accountability for these heinous acts.”
“While the harms wrought by family separation can never fully heal, a criminal investigation is a critical and necessary step to ensure that such wrongs are never repeated. Any government officials who participated in, ordered, authorized, condoned, or acquiesced in torture or other crimes should be investigated. There must be an effective criminal investigation of all government officials, personnel, and contractors who are responsible for this shameful period of our history — no matter their current or former level of office.”
Read more: Catastrophic immigration policies resulted in more family separations than previously disclosed (October 11, 2018)
This statement is available at: https://www.amnestyusa.org/press-releases/familyseparationinvestigation/