For some separated refugee children, the agency is about the only option they have to reunite their families. If you close off applications from outside the country, you are closing off that family reunification. We're a community that has gone through family separation by legislation, and that was the Chinese exclusion act. There is no reason for the government to be introducing this, because from the statistics, we're talking about maybe 1,000 cases. Again, any time we restrict immigration, we find a lot of people simply fall through the cracks.
On May 7th, 2008. See this statement in context.