Maga Republican reacts angrily after being called out over Trump family separation scandal

GOP lawmaker Anna Paulina Luna lashed out an immigration expert after he laughed at her defence of the policies

Mike Bedigan
Wednesday 17 January 2024 22:22
Comments
Maga Republican Reacts Angrily After She's Called Out Over Trump Family Separation Scandal

Maga Republican lawmaker Anna Paulina Luna lashed out an immigration expert after he laughed at her defence of the Trump administration’s policies of separating migrant children from their parents.

During a House of Representatives hearing on Wednesday, Ms Luna contested that the policies had inflicted psychological trauma on the children.

Responding to Cato Institute immigration expert David Bier, she said: “You talk about intentional trauma and that the Trump administration caused intentional trauma by separating these children from their quote-unquote ‘parents’.

“The fact is, is that… you don’t know what these people are like.” Ms Luna then paused to ask: “Mr Bier why are you laughing?”

Mr Bier responded: “Because you said, ‘quote-unquote parents,’ as if they weren’t really their parents.”

Apparently riled by his response, Ms Luna shot back: “You have no idea if these are their intentional parents or not… Are you psychic? Have you won the lotto, Mr Bier? I don’t think you have.”

She continued: “You have no idea what you’re doing and you are hurting these children. The reason why we want family separation until we can confirm if they are the actual biological parents is because these kids are being trafficked.

“We can go back and forth but I’m done talking to you because what you did was destructive.”

During the hearing Mr Bier told the congresswoman to read a report from the Office of the Inspector General dropped in 2021 that was critical of the Trump administration’s "zero tolerance" policy on migrants.

The report accused Former Attorney General Jeff Sessions of knowing families would be separated under the strict guidelines of the policy.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in