[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 57 (Tuesday, April 2, 2019)]
[House]
[Page H2944]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1030
          HUMANITARIAN CRISIS CANNOT BE SOLVED BY A WALL ALONE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Texas (Mr. Green) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, and still I rise. I rise with love 
of country in mind and liberty and justice for all in heart.
  I rise to remind us of the words of the great French intellectual, 
Voltaire, who reminded us that those who can make us believe 
absurdities can cause us to commit atrocities.
  Mr. Speaker, I have been to the border. I have seen the security 
people who are there, the Border Patrol officers. They are victims, Mr. 
Speaker, victims of policies that, unfortunately, do not respect the 
humanity of many people. I have seen the children stacked in cages. I 
have seen the parents grieving.
  Mr. Speaker, I know why people are fleeing the countries south of the 
border. They are doing so because they are, literally, many of them, 
running for their lives. They are seeking safe harbor in the United 
States of America because we have extended an informal invitation by 
and through our Statue of Liberty.
  We have, with our words and our deeds, said to the world that we are 
people who you can trust and who you can depend on.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise with liberty and justice for all in mind because 
those who would want us to believe that babies who are coming here are 
an invading army, if you will, they are wrong. Those babies are coming 
because their mothers believe that they can find safety in our country.
  Mr. Speaker, would anybody deny that a mother who would send her 
child to this country or some distant place, possibly understanding 
that the child could be harmed along the way, can anybody deny that 
this is being done because that mother has such great love for that 
child that she wants her child to have the opportunity to have life, 
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness?
  Can anybody deny that these parents who come, traversing harm's way, 
are doing so because they are trying to leave a circumstance that has 
greater harm?
  Mr. Speaker, I rise with the understanding that Voltaire was right. 
It is an absurdity to believe that women and children and people who 
are fleeing harm's way are invaders.
  I also would remind us of other words of Voltaire. He also reminded 
us that, ``It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere.'' 
I would not utilize the word ``fools,'' but I will say that it is 
difficult to free people from chains that they revere. Those who want 
to separate us from the rest of the world, especially the world of 
color, they revere these chains that bind and bond them to this notion. 
I think it is going to be difficult to separate them, but not 
impossible.
  I believe that people of goodwill can always win and that we of 
goodwill must continue to preach the message and gospel of liberty and 
justice for all.
  I believe that we can make a difference in the lives of people who we 
will never meet and greet. Those persons who are trying to get here 
will probably never vote for me. There is no reason for me to do this 
other than I believe in my heart that an injustice is being perpetrated 
at the border.
  Mr. Speaker, it is my belief that this problem at the border requires 
greater scrutiny and greater attention from the American people and 
from those of us who represent them. It is my belief that if we want to 
do something about this problem, we have to acknowledge that it is a 
humanitarian crisis that we are dealing with and that the humanitarian 
crisis cannot be solved with a wall alone.
  We cannot conclude that, if we leave the world alone, it will leave 
us alone. We are a part of this great world of humanity. There is but 
one race and that is the human race. We must do our part to protect all 
within the human race, especially our neighbors to the south.

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