Rep. Goodlatte Calls for Changes So Families Don't Get Separated at Border

Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., said that laws must be changed so that migrant children are allowed to stay with their parents.

“We need to do everything we can to make sure that we have the ability, when parents show up with their children, to let the children stay with their parents,” Goodlatte said Tuesday in an interview on CNN’s "New Day."

"Every effort needs to be made to take care of children when they’re separated from their parents," said Goodlatte, the Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee.

However, he said that people in Central America and elsewhere should note that "there are better ways to apply for asylum in the United States than to come across the border illegally," Goodlatte said in the interview.

"Shame on parents who bring their children across a desert to try to get into the United States Illegally," the congressman added.

At least 2,300 children have been separated at the border from their families since the Department of Homeland Security issued a "zero-tolerance" policy; Donald Trump’s administration says that only Congress chan change the policy, CNN reported.

Another congressman, Rep. Mark Meadows. R-N.C., said that he and fellow House Freedom Caucus members would on Tuesday introduce legislation including a separate bill concerning family separation.

• Top Pediatrician Says Family Separation at Border is ‘Child Abuse’
• Sen. McCain Calls for End to Border Separation Policy