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Johnson County Officials Call On Yoder To Take Action On Policy Separating Families At Border

U.S. Rep. Kevin Yoder, R-Kansas, chairs the Homeland Security Appropriations subcommittee.
yoder.house.gov
U.S. Rep. Kevin Yoder, R-Kansas, chairs the Homeland Security Appropriations subcommittee.
U.S. Rep. Kevin Yoder, R-Kansas, chairs the Homeland Security Appropriations subcommittee.
Credit yoder.house.gov
U.S. Rep. Kevin Yoder, R-Kansas, chairs the Homeland Security Appropriations subcommittee.

Johnson County leaders have sent a letter to U.S. Rep. Kevin Yoder, R-Kansas, demanding he act to prevent families seeking asylum from being separated at the border.

About 50 Republican and Democratic state lawmakers as well as city and county officials signed the letter to Yoder, who is the chairman of the Homeland Security Appropriations subcommittee.

The letter says the Department of Homeland Security is harming children by taking them from their parents.

“This problem of children being separated from their families is not anything that should be made into a partisan issue,” Rep. Linda Gallagher, R-Lenexa, said. “It’s a matter of human decency and the human rights of these families.”

Gallagher and Rep. Jarrod Ousley, D-Merriam, delivered the letter to the congressman’s Overland Park office Wednesday and spoke with a member of Yoder’s staff.

For his part, Yoder says he wants to find a solution to keep kids with their families.

“I don’t know the exact answer at this moment. What I do know is what’s happening right now, splitting these families, goes against our American values, it goes against who we are as a country,” Yoder said.

Gallagher and Ousley plan to deliver an addendum to the letter with signatures from additional lawmakers sometime next week.

“We’re not going to let it stop here,” Gallagher said. “We’ll keep a dialogue going with congressman Yoder’s office, and I know he’s working on it.”

Aviva Okeson-Haberman is a KCUR news intern. Follow her on Twitter @avivaokeson.

Copyright 2018 KCUR 89.3

Sam grew up in Overland Park and was educated at the University of Kansas. After working in Philadelphia where he covered organized crime, politics and political corruption he moved on to TV news management jobs in Minneapolis and St. Louis. Sam came home in 2013 and covered health care and education at KCPT. He came to work at KCUR in 2014. Sam has a national news and documentary Emmy for an investigation into the federal Bureau of Prisons and how it puts unescorted inmates on Grayhound and Trailways buses to move them to different prisons. Sam has one son and is pretty good in the kitchen.
When Aviva first got into radio reporting, she didn’t expect to ride on the back of a Harley. But she’ll do just about anything to get good nat sounds. Aviva has profiled a biker who is still riding after losing his right arm and leg in a crash more than a decade ago, talked to prisoners about delivering end-of-life care in the prison’s hospice care unit and crisscrossed Mid-Missouri interviewing caregivers about life caring for someone with autism. Her investigation into Missouri’s elder abuse hotline led to an investigation by the state’s attorney general. As KCUR’s Missouri government and state politics reporter, Aviva focuses on turning complicated policy and political jargon into driveway moments.