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Blumenthal Statement on California Federal Court Ruling That Obama Administration’s Family Detention Policy Is Illegal

(Hartford, CT) – U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), member of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary’s Subcommittee on Immigration, released the following statement on last night’s ruling by the Federal District Court for the Central District of California that the Obama administration’s family detention policy is illegal:

Mass detention of immigrant children – an aberrant, abhorrent chapter in our great nation's history – should end immediately under this court ruling. Family detention under deplorable conditions was denounced by myself and others for the reasons the federal judge has struck it down: It is unlawful, unnecessary, and inhumane. While the flow of such children and families across our border has abated, our commitment to Constitutional principles cannot diminish – a fact reaffirmed, albeit belatedly, by this court decision.

The Department of Homeland Security should immediately implement Judge Gee’s order and should waste no additional taxpayer money on an unjustified appeal.

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