[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 94 (Thursday, June 7, 2018)]
[House]
[Page H4855]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             TRUMP ADMINISTRATION FAMILY SEPARATION POLICY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New 
York (Mr. Crowley) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. CROWLEY. Mr. Speaker, I rise to denounce and condemn the Trump 
administration's heartless and inhumane policy of separating immigrant 
children from their mothers and their parents at our borders. Americans 
across the Nation are horrified by the actions undertaken to separate 
and punish children seeking safety and refuge here in the United 
States.
  This isn't about politics. This is about basic humanity. This is not 
who we are as a people.
  Or I ask the President: Is it? Is this whom we have become?
  And let's be honest about what is really happening. This 
administration is terrorizing children and persecuting families who are 
fleeing for their lives, families that are not sneaking into the United 
States but surrendering willingly, surrendering and seeking out border 
agents and asking for asylum, not committing a crime or an offense 
against the American people, simply asking for asylum, fearing for 
their lives and for the safety of their children.
  Is asking for asylum a criminal act? Since when has asking for asylum 
become a criminal act?
  It is not just against American values. It is against any principles 
of common decency.
  And the White House knows that what it is doing is wrong. White House 
Chief of Staff John Kelly said, in early May, that taking children away 
from their families `` . . . would be a tough deterrent.''
  Let me respond to that. Hurting children isn't tough. It is an 
abomination, and it will create lifelong consequences for those 
children. It will also leave an indelible mark against us as a people. 
They fled violence and terror in hopes that America would protect them 
and give them a fair shot, and I can understand why they would think 
that.
  After World War II, when tens of millions of people fled their homes, 
the United States began helping to draft the Refugee Convention that 
created laws and policies to protect those fleeing from persecution. 
The foundation of that convention is not turning people away at the 
borders but, instead, giving them a full chance for an asylum claim. 
This started under then-President Roosevelt and came into full force 
under then-President Harry Truman.
  Now, Donald Trump, Jeff Sessions, and Kirstjen Nielsen are running 
their policy into the ground. Who do they think they are to do this? 
Who are they to make children suffer? Who are they to punish children 
when their parents are simply trying to save their lives?
  For centuries, America has been a beacon for those fleeing violence 
and oppression and poverty. The symbol of our Nation that welcomed 
millions, the Statue of Liberty, has engraved on it Emma Lazarus' 
famous poem:

     Give me your tired, your poor,
     Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.

  No one is more deserving of a chance to breathe free than a child and 
a family fleeing from violence.
  Agents of the U.S. Government should not be ripping 18-month-old 
babies from the arms of their mothers. Instead, we should help to 
address the situation that led them to flee from their home in the 
first place. We should keep families together while their cases are 
considered for asylum, and we should immediately end this zero-
tolerance policy.
  So I strongly urge the Trump administration to immediately end this 
disgusting stain on America's human rights record. I condemn this 
policy. Put an end to this heinous family separation policy. Stop 
taking babies from their mothers.
  This isn't America. We are better than this.

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