[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 116 (Wednesday, July 11, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4908-S4909]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                           Family Separation

  Ms. CORTEZ MASTO. Mr. President, I want to share with my colleagues 
and the American people what I witnessed on a visit to a couple of 
immigration detention facilities on our southern border and the stories 
of the people, children, and infants being held there.
  On a visit to an adult detention facility, I sat down with a group of 
six mothers whose children had been taken from them. One of them, Anna, 
had a 5-year-old daughter she brought with her to the United States. 
After witnessing a brutal murder in her neighborhood and receiving 
death threats in her home country, she decided to leave that country to 
keep her 5-year-old daughter safe.
  She traveled 3,000 miles to get to our southern border, and when she 
finally arrived, she thought: I am safe. I made it. I am going to tell 
them who I am and why I am here because I know I finally made it to 
safety.
  She flagged down Customs and Border Patrol agents thinking that they 
would help her, but when she did, CBP officials arrested her. They took 
her into custody, and then they separated her from her daughter. Anna's 
daughter was put on a bus and driven hundreds of miles away.
  As Anna was telling this story to me, every single one of the mothers 
began to cry. Anna told me this was the first time she had ever been 
separated from her 5-year-old daughter, and she had no idea--no idea--
where her daughter was and what they were doing with her. All of the 
women, as Anna was telling me the story, had experienced the same 
thing.
  Each one of the women I spoke with had children under the age of 12 
who were taken away from them. Their stories were the same. They had 
all faced horrific gang violence and abuse in their home country and 
fled to protect their families. They had been raped and tortured. They 
saw loved ones killed before their very eyes.
  Another one of the women I spoke with, Griselda, explained that in 
her community, the gangs expect extortion payments every week from 
business owners, such as herself, and if you can't pay, they come to 
your house and kidnap or rape or kill your children.
  One day, gang members came and started threatening her son. She knew 
in that moment she had two options: stay and watch her son die or pack 
up her children and run.
  I asked the group of women: Why didn't you go to the police for help? 
They explained to me that the police in their country are just as 
corrupt as the gangs. In their country, there is no rule of law. There 
are no protections. If you want to save your children's lives, your 
only option is to run, and that is what these women did.

[[Page S4909]]

  They came to the United States expecting to find freedom and 
protection, but instead they were thrown in jail, and their children 
were loaded on buses and driven away. These parents want to now know, 
where are their children?
  When they asked me, I told them I didn't have the information they 
needed, and that I, too, was asking the same questions, but I promised 
them I would take their stories back with me to Washington, DC, and 
share them with the American people.
  Because of President Trump's inhumane family separation policy, we 
have almost 3,000 children separated from their parents. Their moms and 
dads just want to have their children back in their arms.
  Just recently, Secretary Azar testified that there is no reason why 
any parent would not know where their child is located. Well, that is 
absolutely false. I spoke with 10 mothers and fathers who have no clue 
where their children are. They look at me with tears running down their 
faces. They pleaded with me to help them find their children.
  This administration gave no thought to the damage inflicted on these 
families, and they clearly had no plan for how they would reunite them.
  We have three different entities working to reunify these families. 
Two are under the umbrella of the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. 
Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, 
and one under the Department of Health and Human Services, the Office 
of Refugee Resettlement, but none of them are working together. As a 
result, the Trump administration has missed its court-ordered deadline 
to reunite young children under 5 with their parents.
  There are 102 children under 5 years old waiting to be reunited with 
their families, but as far as we know, only 4 families have been 
united.
  The Trump administration has been ordered to reunite up to 3,000 
children with their parents by July 26, but they are on track to miss 
that deadline too.
  In the midst of all of this, HHS officials discovered they have been 
holding a toddler, who may be a U.S. citizen, in detention for over a 
year. How could that be possible? How could the reunification process 
be so erratic, inefficient, and slow?
  This administration has been making excuses left and right, trying to 
pin the blame on anyone but themselves. They have suggested that the 
reunification process is slow because too many Members of Congress are 
taking tours of these detention facilities. I couldn't help but laugh 
when I heard that because I can guarantee you, I was not taking a tour 
when I tried to enter a children's detention facility, and they locked 
me out. They would not let me in. I was not allowed in to check on the 
condition of these children or even to talk to anyone in charge about 
how they were taking care of children, toddlers, and infants--kids 
under the age of 12 who have been separated from their parents, many 
for the first time.
  I was there to find out how taxpayer money was being spent and how 
the kids were being treated, but the facilities manager locked the door 
and gave me the number for a communications director to call to seek 
assistance. With a handful of exceptions, most of my colleagues have 
also been turned away.
  The Trump administration is also saying they are having trouble 
locating some of the parents. Part of the problem is, at least 12 of 
the parents with children under 5 years old have already been deported. 
Can you imagine that? Babies who can't even speak have no clue where 
their moms and dads went, and they might never know.
  The Trump administration can't pin the blame for this on Congress, 
Democrats, or anyone else. They are missing the deadline for one reason 
and one reason only: because they never made a plan to reunite these 
families. They never intended to.
  They didn't have a plan 2 weeks ago, when I went down to the border, 
and they don't have one now. They created this chaos with no plan to 
put the broken pieces back together.
  They had to start from scratch trying to locate parents and children 
detained across the country, and now we are hearing heartbreaking 
stories of reunification--toddlers who do not recognize their mothers 
anymore. The physiological trauma this administration has inflicted on 
these children will last a lifetime.
  So, today, I am calling on President Trump to finally do his job and 
provide us with a concrete plan. I want to see results, and I will not 
stop fighting until every child has been reunited with their parents. 
Stop making excuses. Stop blaming Democrats for the crisis you created, 
President Trump.
  The other thing I keep hearing from this administration and from 
President Trump's allies is, the Democrats want open borders. This is 
not about open borders. I support strong, secure borders. I have spent 
my career fighting to uphold the law as the attorney general of the 
State of Nevada for 8 years, fighting to secure our borders. It is not 
about secure borders. We need a plan to reunite these families because 
this is about our values. This is about human rights. This is about who 
we are as a country, and separating families is not who we are. We do 
not tear babies out of their mothers' arms.
  We have always--always--had a guiding principle when it comes to 
children: We do no harm. Whether they are Honduran children, Guatemalan 
children, Salvadoran children, or American children, we do no harm.
  I call on President Trump, abandon your inhumane, zero tolerance 
immigration policy; abandon the heartless decision to separate 
families.
  We should be looking for humane, cost-effective alternatives to 
detention for families fleeing violence. We don't need the Department 
of Defense to build internment camps for babies, toddlers, and kids.
  Locking up families who are seeking asylum under the laws we have put 
in place to protect them will be a moral stain on our country for 
generations to come.
  President Trump, the American people demand that you explain how you 
plan to reunite these families you have scarred forever and whom you 
ripped apart. Work with Democrats to solve the refugee crisis in 
Central America. Don't treat innocent parents and children as political 
pawns. Don't turn your back on everything this country stands for.
  Thank you.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Kennedy). The majority leader.

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