US Rep. Lawrence among Dems touring detention center

After touring a border processing facility on Saturday, Democratic lawmakers said they weren’t convinced the Trump administration had any real plan to reunite immigrant children separated from their parents by U.S. border authorities. The delegation of 25 members of Congress, which included U.S. Rep. Brenda Lawrence, D-Southfield, visited a U.S. Customs and Border Protection processing facility in the U.S.-Mexico border city of McAllen, Texas. They described seeing children sleeping behind bars, on concrete floors and under emergency “mylar” heat-resistant blankets. Even when parents and children aren’t separated, they are often housed in adjacent cells that keep them apart, the lawmakers said. They added they hadn’t seen a clear federal system for reuniting those who were split up, since everyone – even infants – is assigned “A’’ or alien numbers, only to be given different identification numbers by other federal agencies.