Pre-empted by Trump, Murray says everything still not OK

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., had planned to join 20 other Senate Democrats on Wednesday in asking President Donald Trump to take immediate action and stop separating children from their parents at the U.S. border. They were pre-empted by an executive order signed by the president to do just that. But the zero-tolerance policy still applies. Children will no longer be separated from their parents, but anyone who enters the country illegally will be prosecuted. Families who are caught crossing the border will be housed in detention centers. Those centers may need to be built.

As NBC News reported Wednesday, current detention center capacity will be reached in eight days with an average of 420 parents and children crossing the border daily. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement only has 3,335 beds.

Murray and many of her Democratic peers took to the Senate floor late Wednesday afternoon to share personal stories of immigration and call on the president to do better.

She said her constituents are calling and emailing her office en masse “begging the president to pick up the phone or sign a piece of paper, do whatever it takes to make it stop.” Murray’s office has now received more than 8,000 calls and emails on the subject.

Murray questioned when the executive order will be enforced and when parents would be informed of not only their children’s safety but their location.

“Does that mean today, next month? What about the thousands of children who’ve been removed? Will they ever see their parents again?” Murray testified.

She also referenced the ongoing zero-tolerance policy that applies to asylum-seekers.

“While it’s a good thing President Trump dialed back his systematic abuse of children, it is not enough,” she said. “We’re not going to say everything is OK now.”

Despite the public outcry, Murray said there’s good news: The country knows the president will bow to the will of a strong, moral movement.

“If we can find hope in one thing, it is knowing that all those calls and emails and letters, all of that outcry got through to the president to change course on one of his most heartless policies yet,” she said. “But we cannot let up now.”