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Congress is preparing to vote on a couple of immigration proposals today, a day after President Trump signed an executive order to end his administration's policy of separating migrant children from their parents who are detained at the border.
But immigration advocates say they still have concerns about children who have already been separated and what will happen to families who are detained now.
In the audio above, Houston Matters hears from Mary Moreno of the Texas Organizing Project, who decries the fact that there are no plans to reunite children with their parents who already have been separated. She says detaining parents and children in jail together is not the solution.
We also hear from Kate Vickery, executive director of Houston Immigration Legal Services Collaborative. She says the uncertainty about the reunification of these families resonates here and adds that, while the executive order officially ends the policy of family separation, whole families will now be detained together, and that creates other problems.
And, before President Trump signed yesterday's order, Houston officials were pushing back against a proposed shelter to house immigrant children here. But Anne Chandler, executive director of Tahirih Justice Center's Houston office, wants to know how Houstonians can support the many children that are still in the shelters and are not yet back in their parents’ arms.