Rights Group Urges Next US Congress to Protect Refugees, Immigrant Children
The divided US Congress that emerged from Tuesday's midterm elections should act as a check on Trump administration's crackdown on refugees and asylum seekers, especially plans to detain migrant children, Human Rights Watch said in a statement on Wednesday.
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 07th November, 2018) The divided US Congress that emerged from Tuesday's midterm elections should act as a check on Trump administration's crackdown on refugees and asylum seekers, especially plans to detain migrant children, Human Rights Watch said in a statement on Wednesday.
"What we just saw was a record number of voters who made their voices heard at a pivotal moment in this country's history," the release said. "In the next Congress, it is imperative that the House and Senate exercise their oversight authority over this administration's practices of abandoning refugees, detaining immigrant children, suppressing voter turnout, and rolling back women's health and LGBT protections.
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In campaigning prior to Tuesday's vote, Trump sought to limit Democratic gains by railing against Democrat-backed US immigration laws that allow illegal aliens to remain in the United States for years if they apply for political asylum.
Trump also deployed deploying troops on the Mexican border to block thousands of migrants from Central America from entering the United States while threatening to keep families, who make it into the US and apply for asylum, locked in tent cities while their cases are pending in immigration courts.