Bill Nelson: “do you remember children being separated from their families? This crisis is far from over. As a matter of fact, we…”

“do you remember children being separated from their families? This crisis is far from over. As a matter of fact, we found out it is not 2,000 children; it is 3,000 children. A district court judge in San Diego has ordered the administration to reunite all of the families who were separated at the border by Thursday. Yet with the deadline looming this week, the administration continues to cite the many obstacles it says that are hindering the work they are trying to do to comply with the court's order. When I went to the detention center in Homestead, FL, they said they were going to reunite families soon thereafter. That was more than a month and a half ago. As a matter of fact, of the 1,300 children that had been separated from their parents, there were 70 of them who were there. They would not let me speak to them, so I inquired about whether the children had been able to speak to their parents on the phone. I was told that of the 70, 62 of the children had spoken to their parents. It has recently been made clear why some of those families have been unable to connect for so long. A report that was just published stated that the administration--the Trump administration--has been charging detained parents--get this--as much as $8 a minute to call their children. These children were separated from their parents because the administration separated them. That is $8 a minute if you want to talk to your child. That is a new low.…”