[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 103 (Wednesday, June 20, 2018)]
[House]
[Pages H5291-H5292]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           FAMILY SEPARATION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
California (Ms. Judy Chu) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. JUDY CHU of California. Madam Speaker, today, I brought with me 
two young people: Alcides Guandique, age 11, and Jose Guandique, age 
13.
  When I look at them, I think of 2 days ago when I visited the Trump 
detention center at the southern border in San Diego with Members and 
Leader Pelosi.
  There we saw children torn from the arms of their parents under 
Trump's zero-tolerance policy. We talked to the kids. We talked to the 
mental health counselors who told us that children are traumatized.
  Most of them have come here with their parents because they were 
threatened with murder and rape by gangs in Central America and Mexico. 
But because of Trump's policy of separation, these children have lost 
the one constant person in their lives.
  As a psychologist, I took note when the president of the American 
Academy of Pediatrics visited detained kids. She said that, normally, 
kids like this are rambunctious and running around. But these kids are 
either screaming or crying or permanently quiet, and, in fact, that 
kind of toxic stress can permanently affect their brains.
  There is only one way to describe it: government-sanctioned child 
abuse.
  President Trump must own up to the policy that is his and his only. 
He has the power to stop this terrible cruelty. Instead, he is using 
these kids as a bargaining chip for $25 billion for a border wall. It 
is time for him to stop. Stop ripping children from the arms of their 
parents. America is better than this.
  I yield to the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Castor).
  Ms. CASTOR of Florida. Madam Speaker, I thank my friend for yielding 
time, because I was compelled to come to the floor this morning to 
protest this cruel Trump GOP policy of family separation. This is a new 
policy.
  Under past Presidents, when people come to this country legally 
asking for asylum because they are fleeing violence, domestic violence 
and gang violence in other countries, it is legal to request asylum in 
the United States of America. But under this new Trump policy that is 
so cruel and so horrible, he is trying to send a message to the world 
that this is an anti-immigrant country. We are not. He is trying to 
send a message to this world that children can be used for pawns. We 
are not going to let that happen.
  President Trump and the GOP now want to use children as bargaining 
chips to try to exact concessions from Democrats on a very anti-
immigrant, very cruel, very wasteful policy, and we need people across 
America to stand up and speak out.
  The calls to my office are overwhelming. People think this family

[[Page H5292]]

separation policy that rips children away from their families is 
horrible and cruel, and it is. And we need you to keep the calls 
coming.
  We are not going to let this happen. We are not going to let children 
continue to be ripped away from their families, but we need backup.
  We are here to say we stand with the families. We love these 
children. Everyone should love these children, and we are not going to 
put up with Trump's anti-immigrant, hateful policy any longer.
  Ms. JUDY CHU of California. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman 
from Oregon (Ms. Bonamici).
  Ms. BONAMICI. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding.
  I spent the day before Father's Day at the Federal prison in Oregon, 
meeting the 123 asylum-seeking immigrant men who are incarcerated in 
prison. They were fleeing horrific violence and religious 
persecution. They were Christian and Sikh men from India. There was an 
LGBTQ man from Honduras and a man from Mexico whose property was burned 
because he has been targeted by gangs. We spoke with men who were 
separated from their wives and children and who, on Father's Day, had 
no idea where they were or how they were.

  Criminalizing asylum seekers and separating families is cruel, and it 
is appalling.
  Now we find out that there are tender-age shelters. Babies don't need 
their own jail. They need their own parents. This must stop. The 
President and the Department of Justice could stop it right now.
  The American Academy of Pediatrics said that separating families in 
this way causes irreparable harm. Mistreating children for political 
leverage is outside of moral bounds, even for this administration.
  As a mother, it breaks my heart. As an American and granddaughter of 
immigrants, it makes me furious.
  And if the President won't sign something today, which he could, 
then, Speaker Ryan, bring us the Keeping Families Together Act, and let 
us do something to stop this horrific atrocity that is happening to 
children and to people who are coming to this country.

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