CT lawmakers tour Texas detention facilities for immigrants

Several Connecticut legislators joined Democratic lawmakers for a tour of a Customs and Border Protection facility in Texas this weekend.
Among the Connecticut lawmakers were Elizabeth Esty (D-CT 5th District), Rosa DeLauro (D-CT 3rd District,) Joe Courtney (D-CT 2nd District) and Jim Himes (D-CT 4th District).
Rep. Esty says that she spoke with a woman who has been separated from her 12-year-old son.
"She doesn't know where he is," she said. "She has no other family – no other children. No parents of her own. Lots of tears and fear."
Esty went on to say that she was told the detainees are not allowed to make phone calls unless they have money on a credit account, which many do not. She says that while ICE claims that they will find their children if the women ask, the women say they ask every day to no avail.
Rep. Joe Courtney has since called the president's immigration policies a "legal black hole." He says that President Trump, along with Attorney General Jeff Sessions radically changed the way minors were being processed at the border. He says the reversal of the policy separating families at the border isn't enough.
"…There are still thousands of children who are out there right now untethered to their parents and no coherent system to fix that," said Courtney. "And that is something that the president can order and strengthen – and certainly, all of us are going to go back to Washington to make sure that happens as soon as possible."