House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi will travel to the southern border of the U.S. on Saturday to be briefed by Customs and Border Protection on the flood of unaccompanied minors entering the country.
The California Democrat will also meet with a group of children held at the South Texas Detention Facility.
“The humanitarian crisis unfolding across our nation’s southern border demands Congress come together and find thoughtful, compassionate and bipartisan solutions,” Pelosi said. “We must ensure our laws are fully enforced, so that due process is provided to unaccompanied children and the safety and well-being of unaccompanied children is protected. We must also work to address the root causes of the problem.”
More than 50,000 unaccompanied children from central America have crossed the border into the United States since last October, but federal law says the U.S. cannot immediately turn the minors away if they are from non-contiguous countries such as Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala.
The rush of children has turned into a crisis for Customs and Border Protection, which does not have the capacity to house the children for the 72 hours before they are transferred to the Department of Health and Human Services to await an immigration hearing.
Pelosi will be joined by Democratic Reps. Filemon Vela of Texas, Rubén E. Hinojosa of Texas and Steven Horsford of Nevada. Hinojosa is the chairman of the Chairman, Congressional Hispanic Caucus and Vela sits on the House Homeland Security Committee.
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