Washington, D.C. — Kathy Kraninger’s role in the Trump administration’s family separation debacle disqualifies her from serving in the role of Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) director, and the U.S. Senate Banking Committee should vote against her confirmation, said 57 leading national, state, and local organizations in a letter sent to the committee today.
Tomorrow, the committee is scheduled to vote on Kraninger’s nomination; the vote was delayed from its original date last month. In addition to having no experience dealing with finance, banking or consumer protection issues, Kraninger is the point person at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Department of Justice, where she played a central role in administering the inhumane family separation policy that ripped more than 2,600 children from their parents at the border. Indeed, still today, more than 500 children remain separated from their parents, perhaps permanently orphaned, as a result of that policy.
“The [a]dministration officials responsible for implementing the tragedy unfolding deserve to be punished, not promoted,” reads the letter addressed to Chairman Sen. Mike Crapo (R-ID), Ranking Member Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), and other members of the committee. “To date, not a single person in the federal government has been held accountable for this policy, including Ms. Kraninger who had a role in the implementation of this policy,” continues the letter.
Kraninger has admitted to participating in meetings on immigration and border security policy since the beginning of the administration and acknowledges that OMB “has an extensive role” in working with agencies as they carry out their policies.
“OMB’s role typically involves facilitating interagency communication and helping to manage complicated processes that cut across multiple agencies,” the groups added. “Either Ms. Kraninger failed terribly at her job, putting the well-being and lives of thousands of children in danger, or, even more concerning, she purposefully sought to run an ineffective, cruel process in order to punish children and/or their parents, in which case she lacks the moral sense or standing to hold a government position.”
“A vote to advance Ms. Kraninger’s nomination to head the CFPB is a vote to approve or excuse the conduct of one of the central figures in the family separation debacle thus minimizing the extent of this harmful and cruel policy. The Committee should reject her nomination,” the groups wrote.
In addition to CAP, signatories to the letter include: Al Otro Lado; Allied Progress; America’s Voice; American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee; American Federation of Teachers; Anethum Global; Arkansas United; Autistic Self Advocacy Network; Bend the Arc: Jewish Action; California OneCare; Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA); Coalition on Human Needs; Consumer Action; Courage Campaign; Delaware Community Reinvestment Action Council, Inc.; Detention Watch Network; Equality California; Faith in Public Life; Florida Consumer Action Network; GreenLatinos; Herd on the Hill; Hip Hop Caucus; Hispanic Federation; Hope Border Institute; Indivisible; Japanese American Citizens League; Jobs With Justice; Justice Strategies; Latin America Working Group (LAWG); The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights; Mixteco Indígena Community Organizing Project (MICOP); MomsRising; National Advocacy Center of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd; National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum (NAPAWF); National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP); National Center for Lesbian Rights; National Domestic Workers Alliance; National Fair Housing Alliance; National Immigrant Justice Center; National Immigration Law Center; National Institute for Reproductive Health (NIRH); National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health; National Network of Abortion Funds; National Organization for Women; New Economy Project; People For the American Way; Public Citizen; Stand Up America; Services, Immigrant Rights and Education Network (SIREN); Service Employees International Union (SEIU); Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition; Tzedek DC; United We Dream; URGE: Unite for Reproductive & Gender Equity; Women’s Refugee Commission; WV Citizen Action Group.
To read the letter, click here.
For more information or to speak with an expert on this topic, please contact Allison Preiss at [email protected] or Rafael Medina at [email protected].