[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 108 (Wednesday, June 27, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Page S4496]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           FAMILY SEPARATION

  Mr. UDALL. Mr. President, I rise today to talk about the immigration 
crisis that this President has generated.
  The Nation has seen images of children trapped behind wire fencing 
and children sleeping on concrete floors. We have seen the tents 
hurriedly set up to house children separated from their parents. We 
have seen the video of Jessica, who doesn't know where her mother is 
and wants to talk to her. We have heard the audio of young children 
crying out for their mothers and fathers. We have heard the audio of a 
detention facility staff person telling the kids not to talk to the 
press, claiming it will hurt their immigration case.
  As of June 12, on American soil, over 100 babies under the age of 1 
year are being held in detention by the American Government. We think 
this can't be happening in the United States of America, but it is.
  Last Friday, Senators Heinrich, Blumenthal, and I visited President 
Trump's tent city in Tornillo, TX, and we toured a Border Patrol 
station in Clint and El Paso and a port of entry in El Paso. We were 
turned away from Tornillo on Friday, so I went back Saturday and got 
inside to see the children. We all went to these government facilities 
to get answers, but we came up short.
  Most pressing, we still don't know when or how all the thousands of 
children taken from their parents will be reunited. We don't know how 
children whose parents have already been deported will be reunited. We 
have parents scared that they will never see their children again.
  The confusion, chaos, and incompetence with which the President's 
zero tolerance policy was executed is only outmatched by the confusion, 
chaos, and incompetence with which reunification is being handled.
  The immediate priority must be to get these children back to their 
parents as soon as possible. We know we are doing damage to these 
children every day that they are not with their families. We know this. 
Pediatric and mental health professionals all agree. The American 
Academy of Pediatrics condemned the administration because those 
doctors know that separating families can result in ``irreparable 
harm.'' That is a quote from the American Academy of Pediatrics--
``irreparable harm'' to separated children.
  Last weekend, I saw children detained in the tents in Tornillo who 
were able to talk to their parents only twice a week for 10 minutes. I 
saw astounding young children--children 3 to 10 years old--who had 
crossed the border without their parents. I saw families from 
Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, fleeing violence and persecution, 
locked in detention at Border Patrol. I met Jade Gabriela, who is not 
even 2, and her father, detained in El Paso, both of them trying to 
escape the brutality and gangs in Honduras.

  President Trump claims there is a border crisis, but communities on 
the border dispute this. I am a Senator from a border State, and I 
dispute this. I represent border communities, and I have been to the 
border many, many times recently and over the years. President Trump 
has not. He should come see for himself and see the humanitarian crisis 
he has created.
  Detention facilities for children are overwhelmed. We have heard from 
a whistleblower in New York that there is not enough staffing at her 
facility because of all the young children coming in. These internment 
camp-like facilities--as former First Lady Laura Bush has compared them 
to--are costing Americans and American taxpayers millions of dollars. 
The Tornillo tent city costs $400,000 every day. The President's poorly 
conceived Executive order directs the Department of Homeland Security 
Secretary to set up even more family detention facilities on military 
bases.
  Zero tolerance has overwhelmed the U.S. attorney's offices on the 
border. Now, instead of prosecuting violent criminals for serious 
crimes, Federal prosecutors are wasting resources, focusing instead on 
criminally prosecuting mothers and fathers for misdemeanor improper-
entry violations. There is a call to take military JAG lawyers away 
from their more important duties to handle the flood of immigration 
cases and recall prosecutors from their posts in Indian Country, where 
they are so sorely needed. All systems are bursting at the seams thanks 
to the President's made-up crisis, cruelty, and bureaucratic 
incompetence.
  As of today, there is no clear path forward to reunite families. 
There is no timeline. Tuesday, Secretary Azar of Health and Human 
Services admitted in his testimony before the Senate Finance Committee 
that there is no timeline. The Department of Health and Human Services 
is prohibited under the Flores case from reuniting children with 
parents who are in detention.
  The President wants to keep zero tolerance in place and continue to 
prosecute and keep parents in detention with their children. Not only 
is this cruel and un-American, but I think the Federal judge in Flores 
is going to reject the President's request to allow children to be 
jailed with their parents longer than 20 days.
  The President has doubled down on zero tolerance. Like many of his 
policies that are hastily implemented and borne of his divisive agenda, 
there is no plan B if the court refuses, as it should, to allow 
children to be jailed with their parents.
  There is an obvious solution. Successful alternatives to detention 
have demonstrated compliance rates of 99 percent with court appearances 
and ICE appointments. These programs are both effective and cost a 
fraction of what it takes to detain families. Why doesn't the President 
use these programs and save taxpayers millions of dollars? Because he 
thinks it doesn't appear tough and takes away his bargaining chip of 
detained children that he thinks he can use to get his wall.
  In the President's rush to gain political traction, he has created a 
humanitarian and moral crisis within our own borders, the likes of 
which we have not seen since we interned families of Japanese heritage 
during World War II.
  I can tell you that I will not back down from this fight. More 
importantly, I can tell you that the American people and New Mexicans 
are with me. It is the voices of the American people that forced the 
President to retreat from his brutal family separation policy, and it 
is those voices that will prevail in the end.
  The administration is trying its hardest to hide what is going on 
from the American people, but the American people are demanding 
answers. We all must continue to speak out until we have policies in 
place that make sure families stay together, lawfully and humanely. We 
need alternatives to detention, and we need to stand up for due 
process.
  As Americans see images of separated children and family detention 
camps, they turn to Congress, and they turn to the judicial system as 
well. A Federal judge recently issued a ruling barring family detention 
and ordering reunification within 30 days, but the Trump administration 
may fight this ruling--just like they are fighting to overturn Flores, 
which came out of a Supreme Court case.

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