Press Releases

​Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (D-ME) today cosponsored the House version of the Keep Families Together Act, a companion bill to Senator Dianne Feinstein’s legislation to bar the federal government from separating children from their parents at the country’s border. 

“I’m deeply troubled by the Administration’s approach of taking children away from parents at the border. We’ve all heard the stories of babies being ripped out of mothers’ arms. Now they’re planning to build a tent city for young children,” Pingree said in a video message earlier today  “Like many of my colleagues. I’m cosponsoring a bill that would basically prohibit this practice. We need to have an end to this. My colleagues on the Republican side should be holding hearings, making sure we have a policy that prohibits this and stop the Administration from this inhumane behavior.”

Under the Trump Administration’s "zero-tolerance” policy announced in April 2018—which calls for the prosecution of all individuals who illegally enter the United States—hundreds of children have been forcibly separated from their parents after being detained at the U.S.-Mexico border. 

Pingree has also cosponsored H.R. 5950, the HELP Separated Children Act, introduced by Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA).  The legislation would take a number of steps to protect children separated from their parents by ICE actions.

Pingree urged Congress to take action on the humanitarian crisis in May after reports that the Department of Health and Human Services had lost track of 1,500 undocumented children in its custody.