86R2261 BPG-D
By: Walle H.R. No. 69
R E S O L U T I O N
WHEREAS, On June 20, 2018, President Donald J. Trump signed
an executive order designed to quell mounting public outrage over
the family separation crisis at the U.S./Mexico border, but the
administration's Zero Tolerance Policy on immigration continues to
harm children; and
WHEREAS, The Zero Tolerance Policy was introduced in April
2018, when the U.S. attorney general directed federal prosecutors
along the southwestern border to criminally prosecute all
immigrants entering the country without authorization, regardless
of whether they were seeking asylum or refugee status; parents
apprehended at the border were arrested and jailed, while their
minor children, including babies and toddlers too young to talk,
were taken from them by the Border Patrol and eventually dispatched
to Department of Health and Human Services shelters, many of them
thousands of miles away; and
WHEREAS, Across the country and around the world, people
reacted with horror at images and news reports of distraught
children and grieving parents; medical professionals warned that
children could suffer lasting psychological trauma, and in a
Washington Post op-ed, former first lady Laura Bush decried the
Zero Tolerance Policy as "cruel" and "immoral"; after President
Trump issued his executive order halting the practice of family
separation, a federal court ordered the government to reunite
nearly 3,000 migrant children and their parents within 30 days, but
the process was greatly complicated by shoddy recordkeeping during
the hasty implementation of the Zero Tolerance Policy; more than
three months later, over 100 minors remained in federal custody;
and
WHEREAS, On September 27, 2018, the Department of Homeland
Security Office of Inspector General issued an initial report on
family separation issues under the Zero Tolerance Policy; it
revealed a chaotic interagency process that did not establish a
means to track the identity of preverbal children in government
custody; moreover, it found that at least 860 migrant children had
been left in austere Border Patrol holding cells for longer than the
legal limit of 72 hours; and
WHEREAS, Although the family separation measures ended,
older youths have continued to cross the border on their own in
search of a better life, and immigration policies still in place
have driven the overall number of unaccompanied minors in detention
to record levels; in September 2018, the New York Times reported
that the migrant youth population at federally contracted shelters
had more than quintupled in a year, to over 13,000, as unaccompanied
minors spend longer periods in custody; Department of Health and
Human Services data suggests that the rise is due to increasingly
stringent regulations and heightened fears of deportation, which
discourage relatives and family friends from coming forward as
sponsors for these children; as a result, shelters have hovered
near 90 percent capacity, and in early September, the
administration announced the tripling of its temporary "tent city"
for children in Tornillo; such shelters are far more costly than
traditional shelters, and they offer neither education nor mental
health services, nor are they regulated by state child welfare
authorities, as are permanent shelters; protracted stays in such
facilities risk deepening the trauma already suffered by these
youngsters; and
WHEREAS, The economic cost of expanded detention is not
inconsiderable; internal documents from the Department of Health
and Human Services reveal that more than $260 million has been
reallocated to the program, taking funding away from such essential
services as the National Cancer Institute, the National Institutes
of Health, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention;
another $200 million has been redirected within the Department of
Homeland Security to the aggressive immigration enforcement agenda
from FEMA, the Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Office, the
U.S. Coast Guard, U.S. Customs and Border Protection,
cybersecurity, the Transportation Security Administration, and
other departments; and
WHEREAS, While the crisis among migrant youths has unfolded,
the Trump administration has worked to circumvent long-standing
legal time limits on their detention; such constraints were imposed
by the court in the 1997 Flores Agreement, a consent decree stemming
from a class action lawsuit over the physical and emotional harm
suffered by children confined in jail-like settings; a judge
rejected the administration's request to suspend the Flores
Agreement in July 2018, but the administration is currently seeking
approval to withdraw from the consent decree and replace it with a
new agreement with looser restrictions; and
WHEREAS, The Zero Tolerance Policy has exacted a terrible
human toll and significant economic costs, causing hardship and
heartbreak while draining resources from agencies and programs that
protect Americans and improve their lives; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, That the House of Representatives of the 86th Texas
Legislature hereby respectfully urge the president of the United
States to end the Zero Tolerance Policy in regards to immigration
and to uphold the important provisions of the Flores Agreement;
and, be it further
RESOLVED, That the chief clerk forward an official copy of
this resolution to the president as an expression of sentiment by
the Texas House of Representatives.