Senators Call for Halt to Raids

U.S. Senator Dick Durbin, Jan. 22, 2016- "U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) today joined U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and twenty of their Senate colleagues to send a letter to President Obama calling for an immediate halt to the Department of Homeland Security’s recent targeted arrests and deportations of mothers and children from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala.  The senators also urged the Administration to consider designating Guatemala and redesignating El Salvador and Honduras for temporary protected status.

 "We are deeply concerned that in its eagerness to deter additional arrivals from this region, the Department is returning vulnerable individuals with valid protection claims to life-threatening violence,” the senators wrote. “This is not hyperbole. There have been multiple reports of individuals, including children, being killed within days or weeks of their deportation.  Moreover, we do not accept the argument that removing these individuals will deter additional children and families from fleeing the region."

Full text of the senators’ letter..."