PLEASANT HILL, Calif. _ California Republican Rep. Jeff Denham knocked on the door of a small child detention facility in the suburbs of San Francisco on Monday, but left disappointed.
Denham, of Turlock, waited about five minutes in silence, repeatedly knocking on the door, before a security guard told him the employees inside had been instructed to not answer the door, not to even speak to him.
The facility, Denham said, was detaining immigrant children ages 13 and younger. He said he was told that there were 25 children inside, and two girls had been separated from their parents. He had been told as recently as Friday that he would be allowed to go in, he said, but the facility changed their tune over the weekend.
"Obviously, we want to know the plan to reunifiy those kids back with their parents," Denham said Monday, outside the facility in Pleasant Hill.
Denham, who faces what is believed to be a competitive re-election battle in his Central Valley district this year, said he made the journey to the center to see conditions for himself as Congress considers immigration legislation and confronts the outcry over separated families.
The number of immigrant children being separated from their parents skyrocketed due to a combination of President Donald Trump's policies and existing law. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced in April there was now a "zero tolerance" policy at the border, which meant all immigrants, even those seeking asylum, caught outside ports of entry would be charged with a crime.
Existing law only allows the detention of children in specific situations, but typically immigrant children are required to be held in the least restrictive facility possible and even then can only be held for a maximum of 20 days. So as parents were detained by the thousands, children were separated from them by the thousands.
A federal judge in California ruled last week that all children separated under the policy needed to be reunited with their parents within 30 days. Those under 5 years old needed to be reunited in 14 days, he said.
About 2,000 children were separated from their parents since the zero tolerance policy was implemented, according to June 20 figures released by the Department of Homeland Security, and more than 500 have been reunited with their parents or guardians.
Trump, after blaming Democrats for weeks for the policy and saying he could not change it without congressional action, relented last week and signed an executive order that halts the separation of families. The zero tolerance policy is still in effect, according to his administration, but allows the children and parents to be detained in the same facilities.
Some have questioned whether the executive order is legally sound.
Immigration legislation pushed by Denham that failed in the House last week would have changed the law to allow families to be detained together, as Trump's executive order now says. Trump has continued to say congressional action is needed on the issue.
Denham is one of the few Republican members of Congress to visit one of the child detention facilities. Such visits have been more common among Democrats. Reps. Mike Coffman, R-Colo.; Roger Marshall, R-Kan.; Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa.; and Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., have visited facilities.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., led a group of Democrats along with the Congressional Hispanic Caucus to visit another California facility in San Diego in mid-June. Pelosi called what she saw "heartbreaking" and a "humanitarian crisis" and called for it to be "changed immediately."
In Denham's home district in Modesto, businessman Josh Harder, his Democratic opponent, was part of a march to protest the mistreatment of immigrant families over the weekend. It was one of hundreds of nationwide protests against the separation of immigrant families.
"The economic and social fabric of the entire Central Valley are dependent on immigration and we have to fight for that," said Harder, who has criticized Denham for not being able to deliver on immigration reform.
"The stakes are too high this election. We're fighting for kids being separated from their families. We're fighting for real immigration reform," said Harder in a statement about the protest.
