[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 92 (Tuesday, June 5, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2982-S2983]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                        Forced Family Separation

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, for those of us who read history, we know 
that throughout history, including at times in our own country many 
years ago, the forcible separation of families was used as an 
instrument of terror.
  I struggle to imagine a more damaging and inhumane governmental 
policy than to forcibly and needlessly tear children away from their 
parents. For decades, the United States has rightly led the world in 
condemning such practices as flagrant abuses of government power and 
human rights.
  Yet, today, in an extraordinary breach of our most basic values, the 
Trump administration is now regularly employing these very tactics. It 
is true that some children were separated from their parents during the 
previous administration. I vocally and forcefully opposed it then, 
because I believed and I am still convinced that there are alternatives 
that are far more humane and effective than the tearing apart of 
families.
  But the family separation we are seeing today is so vastly different 
both in purpose and in scope than what occurred during the Obama 
administration. There is no comparison. Separation is no longer limited 
to narrow circumstances where it is arguably in the best interest of 
the child. Separating children, even infants, from their parents is now 
being carried out as a blanket policy. It is frightening. This 
disturbing policy is happening by design.
  The Trump administration's decision to criminally prosecute every 
adult who arrives at our border without documentation establishes a de 
facto family separation policy that is going to rip thousands of 
innocent children away from their loved ones. The administration's 
claim that this policy is necessary to deter illegal border crossings 
rings hollow. The administration has also separated families who follow 
the rules and lawfully present themselves at ports of entry with claims 
of asylum. They are asking for asylum.
  There is simply no way we can sanitize the cruelty of this policy. 
The anguish we are inflicting is evident in the story of each parent 
who is losing a child. Let me tell my colleagues a couple of those 
stories.
  Here are the words of Maria, who was separated from her children, 
ages 7 and 2, just last month when she sought asylum at the San Ysidro 
Port of Entry.
  She said:

       [A]t about 8 a.m. they called just my two children and I 
     went out and they said, ``Miss, only they are going.''. . . . 
     [T]he officer said, ``They are here for them. Can the little 
     one walk?''
       ``Yes,'' I told the officer.
       ``Let him down,'' they told me.
       The older one took his hand and they started to walk. Then 
     they turned around to look and when they saw that I was not 
     going after them, they cried.

  I will tell another story, the ordeal of another mother with two 
sons, age 4 and 10. She is seeking asylum from El Salvador.

       I was only given five minutes to say goodbye before [my 
     sons] were torn from me. My babies started crying when they 
     found out we were going to be separated. It breaks my heart 
     to remember my youngest wail, ``Why do I have to leave?''. . 
     . . My youngest cried and screamed in protest because he did 
     not want to leave my side. My oldest son was also confused 
     and did not understand what was happening. In tears myself, I 
     asked my boys to be brave, and I promised we would be 
     together again soon. I begged the woman who took my children 
     to keep them together so they could at least have each other.

  This is a description from a father seeking asylum at the San Ysidro 
Port of Entry:

       I was told I was going to be separated from my son. I 
     suffer from high blood pressure and felt as though I was 
     having a heart attack. . . . I feel like I was in shock and 
     do not remember what happened next or even how I got to the 
     detention center after that. All I can remember is how much 
     my son and I were both crying as they took him away.

  The anguish inflicted on these parents and children at the moment 
they are separating is excruciating. For those of us who are parents, 
it is inconceivable, but it is just the beginning. Parents are given 
limited information--sometimes none at all--about where their children 
are being held, in whose care, or for how long. Some have begged the 
courts for information, frustrating judges who know little more than 
the parents. Some are deported while their children remain in unknown 
locations in the United States. Pediatricians describe the trauma that 
can be inflicted on these children as toxic stress. It results in 
lasting damage to a child's health.
  Who here would tolerate such a thing if it were happening to American 
children? Who would defend such an abhorrent practice that was 
happening in another country--say, Russia or any other country? None of 
us would. We would condemn it.
  But all of this lays bare the ugly truth about the true intent of 
this policy: to strike fear into the hearts of families who are seeking 
refuge from gang violence, chaos, murder, and rape in their home 
countries. The message could not be clearer: If you try to seek refuge 
in the United States, which is your right under international law, if 
you seek your right, if you seek refuge, if you seek the right you have 
under international law, we in America will punish you and punish your 
family because you are not welcome here.
  This policy unquestionably flouts our domestic and international 
legal obligations. Worse, it flies in the face of who we are. In the 
past, we have shown the world that protecting our homeland is not 
incompatible with providing refuge to the vulnerable. We have proven 
that being a nation of laws is not antithetical to being a country of 
compassion. We have demonstrated that our unmatched power is derived in 
part from how we treat the most powerless among us. But President 
Trump's policy abandons our principles. Actually, it abandons our 
identity as a moral beacon for the world.
  Republicans and Democrats must speak with one voice to condemn this 
cruelty. Family separation is no more a Republican policy than a 
Democratic

[[Page S2983]]

policy. It is neither. It is an un-American policy.
  The United States, this great country that beckoned my maternal 
grandparents to come to the United States and Vermont, or my great-
grandparents, paternal grandparents to come to the United States and 
Vermont--this great country must not be seen as terrorizing children to 
score political points. That is beneath the greatness of the United 
States. It is wrong. It is abhorrent. We must not be seen as pursuing 
policies with the intent of inflicting pain and anguish on vulnerable 
people, on children.
  I hope Senators of both parties with join me in condemning this 
outrageous practice of forced family separation. We are a nation that 
is better than this. We have always thought of ourselves as better than 
this. Well, it is time we acted like we are better than this.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from South Dakota.