During the first day of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s markup of immigration reform legislation, the committee adopted two of Senator Mazie K. Hirono’s measures that would protect families and strengthen our immigration system. …

The committee adopted Hirono’s “Protect Family Values at the Border Act” that would stop families from being torn apart at the border by allowing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to consider keeping families together during removal.

Right now, many families are torn apart at the border since current law requires many adult men to be transferred to a border location hundreds of miles away from where they were intercepted. Meanwhile, their families are simply sent back across the border at the place they were intercepted with no money and no idea of where their husbands or fathers were taken. …

The committee also approved another amendment offered by Hirono that would strengthen the Department of Homeland Security official charged with protecting the rights of those navigating the immigration system. …

Watch Hirono’s video remarks.

—Chad Blair