[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 102 (Tuesday, June 19, 2018)]
[House]
[Page H5228]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             WE NEED TO COME TOGETHER TODAY ON IMMIGRATION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Connecticut (Mr. Himes) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. HIMES. Mr. Speaker, I stand to address this Chamber at the start 
of this legislative week in a slightly different mode of thinking than 
I usually do, because as we have become aware in the last couple of 
days, this country is in the midst of a moral and ethical emergency.
  Mr. Speaker, we debate lots of things on this floor, and that is a 
good thing. We argue about taxes. We argue about our budget. We argue 
about the best way to take care of our children, regulations, all sorts 
of things where the debate in this Chamber is constructive, sometimes 
to a good solution.
  What we have become aware of on our southern border is not a 
debatable thing. It transcends ideology. It transcends political party. 
It gets to the very moral core of all of us as individuals and at the 
very thing that makes this country truly exceptional.
  We are exceptional for a bunch of reasons. We are a very powerful 
country. We are a very wealthy country. But there are other powerful 
and wealthy countries.
  What makes this country exceptional is that we stand up for values 
and morals and ethics. And there is no ethical or moral way to look at 
an agent of the United States Government removing a small child from 
the arms of his or her mother and to in any way say that that is a 
moral act consistent with the values that make this country 
exceptional.
  There is no debate. There is no ideology. There is no deterrent 
effect that would make that okay.
  Since our President is uninterested in doing what we all know he 
could do, which is to stop this immoral action right now, it is time 
for the Congress of the United States, the Representatives of the 
people of the United States, of the good people of the United States, 
to stand up today and say: That act will not be done in my name.
  We should have debates about immigration. We should solve the 
immigration challenges that face us. But never ever, ever should we go 
to where we are today where the lives of young children are being used 
for a deterrent, are being used as legislative leverage.
  My colleagues, we have been here before. We interned American 
citizens of Japanese descent, because at the time in World War II, we 
thought that they might be a threat.
  The President promulgates the notion that immigrants are a threat. To 
him, immigrants are MS-13. We are all immigrants. This country is great 
because we are a Nation of immigrants.
  So it is time for us to set aside whatever calculations, whatever 
ideology, whatever arguments might be made around the vexing problem of 
immigration, and to stop the separation of babies from their parents in 
our Nation today.
  If we don't do that today, we will be complicit. The Representatives 
of the people will be complicit in a moral act that resonates with the 
internment of American citizens of Japanese descent. And I don't think 
any Democrat or Republican in this Chamber wants their legacy to be 
that act.
  The President could fix this problem right now. It will take us a 
little longer, but because it will take us a little longer and because 
I do believe for all the arguments and dysfunction in this Chamber that 
we are fundamentally a moral group of people, reflective of the ethical 
aspect of our constituents and of our country, that this afternoon is 
the time to come together to stop babies being taken from the arms of 
their parents in our country and in our name.

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