Sen. Lindsey Graham, South Carolina Republican, said Sunday that about 30% of migrant adults with children trying to cross the U.S. border are “fake families” trying to game the U.S. asylum system.
Mr. Graham, who toured two Texas detention centers Friday with Vice President Mike Pence, said he was told during the visits that “30% of the people with small children are fake families.”
He said agencies have launched a pilot program to undertake genetic testing of parents and children.
“They are doing a pilot program and doing DNA testing and checking and seeing, are these real families?” Mr. Graham said on Fox’s “Sunday Morning Futures.”
“They told us about 60 children that were recycled,” he continued. “They picked the child up in Central America. They bring them to the United States. Everybody’s released, and the child goes back to Central America to do it again. It’s $8,000 for adults, $4,000 for families.”
What’s the motivation? Under the 1997 Flores settlement, children cannot in most cases be held for more than 20 days, although a report released Friday by the Democrat-led House Oversight Committee cited examples of minors being held for longer than that.
Sen. Lindsey Graham: ICE raids are focused on those who already had their day in court https://t.co/vXzlQdbvwD @LindseyGrahamSC @SundayFutures @FoxNews
— Maria Bartiromo (@MariaBartiromo) July 14, 2019
“If you bring a small child to America with you, we can only hold that child for 20 days,” Mr. Graham said. “Since we don’t want to separate families, we release them all. We released 52,000 people into the interior of the United States at that station this year alone because we don’t have places to hold them and we can’t keep the family together.”
Mr. Graham, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, introduced in March legislation requiring asylum-seekers to apply in their home country or Mexico—instead of the U.S. southern border—and allow minors to remain in custody for up to 100 days.
“The word is out in Central America, you bring a small child to the United States, you’re home free,” he said. “I want to change that narrative. My bill will stop 90% of this. We’re going to vote before the August recess.”
The committee report found that at least 18 infants and toddlers under the age two were separated from their parents and kept apart for between 20 days and six months, while 679 were held for between 45 and 75 days.
“The information obtained by the Committee indicates that the Trump Administration’s decision to separate thousands of babies, toddlers, and children from their parents and put them in government custody for months or years is causing immense suffering,” said the report.
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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