[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 99 (Thursday, June 14, 2018)]
[House]
[Pages H5155-H5156]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     OUR LEADERS SHOULD KNOW BETTER

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Illinois (Mr. Gutierrez) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GUTIERREZ. Mr. Speaker, yesterday, a group of about 30 of us, 
including 10 Members of Congress, decided we had had enough of this 
administration's policy to scar children for life by taking them away 
from their parents when they turn themselves in to American authorities 
and ask for asylum.
  We went down to the Ronald Reagan Building on 14th Street because we 
had not heard from the three Cabinet Members we had written last week 
to give us answers about where the children at the border have been 
taken to and what our government was going to do to reunite them with 
their parents.
  So  John Lewis, Joe Crowley, Jan Schakowsky, Al Green, Raul Grijalva, 
Adriano Espaillat, and I, joined by hundreds of allies, went down to 
the CBP headquarters to protest their action and their secrecy.
  And when we blocked the entrance to the building--ironically, a 
building named for the man who gave the famous shining city on a hill 
speech, who spoke so eloquently about immigrants, and was no fan of 
walls--yes, we blocked the entrance to the Ronald Reagan Building, but 
the Border Patrol did not arrest us.
  No, they feel comfortable arresting 10-year-olds and taking 10-month-
old babies from their moms and dads, but when 10 Members of Congress 
show up to demand answers they get a little camera shy, a little weak-
kneed. But we will be back and we will do it again and again if we have 
to.
  Right now, today, there are people who lawfully enter the United 
States and ask for asylum under our laws and international law, and 
then they are taken straight to jail to await Federal prosecution. And 
if they have children, the officers think of some pretext, maybe 
telling the parents that they are taking the child for food or for a 
bath, and then the kids never return, simply disappear, kidnapped. Many 
are taken to facilities that are hundreds or thousands of miles away.
  The parent is given a mass trial, so their individual case may never 
be heard or evaluated, and most are deported back to the country they 
fled to face continuing violence and rape again and again.
  And are their children given back to them? Well, we don't know. We 
can't get answers, which is why we went yesterday.
  Then on Monday Attorney General Sessions had one of the most 
stunning, newspeak, 1984, mind-control moments we have ever heard. He 
said that if a man beats a woman, or if a family is systematically 
extorted, threatened, targeted by a gang, that that is a private matter 
and cannot be the basis of an asylum claim.
  Rape and abuse, that is just a private matter, according to the 
Attorney General, between a man and a woman. According to the chief law 
enforcement officer of our country, that is just a private matter 
between a man and a woman, between the family and the gang of 
terrorists they are facing.
  Only in the Trump administration could someone say something so 
thoroughly and utterly wrong, dangerous, ridiculous.
  My friend, Trey Gowdy, is a Republican who is known around here on 
the Oversight and Government Reform Committee and the Judiciary 
Committee as a pretty no-nonsense former prosecutor. I went to his 
website to look at his biography. You can all Google it. It says it 
right there: ``As 7th Circuit Solicitor, Trey led an office of 25 
attorneys and 65 total employees. During his tenure, he started a 
Violence Against Women Task Force.'' Right there in his official bio.
  So wife beating isn't a private matter in South Carolina. If you are 
being beaten, raped, or tortured by your domestic partner, your 
husband, the police, the prosecutor, the judge will get involved 
because it isn't a private matter in South Carolina or anywhere in the 
United States of America.
  Go listen to Trey Gowdy's speeches on the YouTube channel or his 
Facebook. Watch the video of his speech on the House floor in support 
of the Violence Against Women Act. Trey Gowdy will move you to tears no 
matter what your political party or ideological persuasion.
  But according to the Attorney General, it is a private matter between 
a

[[Page H5156]]

man and a woman. He expects every domestic violence victim to hire 
their own lawyer and sue their husband to get a court order and be 
protected.
  We have a prosecutor for domestic violence in Cook County and 
probably every county in the United States of America. This is a matter 
of public health, law enforcement and, come on, this is a matter of 
good men and women living by a moral code that says we should help 
those in danger when the weak are being preyed upon by the strong.
  But apparently not to our Attorney General or President. To them, 
those are private matters. That is just wrong.
  Sleeping with an adult film star and then paying thousands of dollars 
to keep it quiet, that is a private matter to be worked out between 
private attorneys. Fleeing death, and violence, and rape, and torture, 
that is a public matter, and our leaders should know better.

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