Democratic senators read dramatic letter from parents separated from children at border in new video

Democratic senators read the words of parents separated from their children at the southern border in a new video released to CNN exclusively Thursday night.

In the video montage, 13 Democratic senators read a letter signed earlier this month by 54 detainees at the Port Isabel Detention Center in Los Fresnos, Texas. The video is the latest attempt by Democrats to draw attention to the impact of the Trump administration's immigration policies.

Lawmakers described the letter -- which recounts the dramatic experience of family separation and its traumatic effects -- as "gut-wrenching," which compelled them to make the video.

"Hundreds of parents are faced with the painful reality that they may never again know where their children are or if they will ever be reunited. The suffering inflicted on these families by this administration goes against the very values this country was built on," said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. "These immigrants came to the United States to escape violence in their home countries and are now living through a nightmare because of President Trump and his administration's incompetence."

Eileen Blessinger, the attorney who delivered the letter to CNN, said that while some of the parents who signed the letter have been reunited, others are still in limbo.

"They wanted the public to know," said Blessinger. "They came to this country for refuge, had their children taken from them as punishment and saw they couldn't find justice in the asylum office or with the judges."

Senators released the video Thursday after the court-ordered deadline for the reunification of separated families.

"The Trump administration's deliberate separation of children from their parents was indefensibly inhumane. And their failure to reunite these families by court-imposed deadlines is a shameful display of incompetence, cruelty, or both. This heart-wrenching letter lays bare the callousness of President Trump's 'zero tolerance' policy and the trauma it has inflicted on these innocent families fleeing violence and chaos," said Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont.