[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 116 (Thursday, July 11, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4784-S4785]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                  Immigration and Customs Enforcement

  Madam President, on the ICE raids, last night the New York Times 
reported another thing President Trump was trying to do--ordering ICE 
to resume plans to carry out nasty deportation raids over the weekend. 
His plan will tear families apart and disrupt immigrant communities 
across America, including immigrants here legally and those in the 
process of legally applying for asylum. Cruelty. Cruelty seems to be 
the point of these raids. This is not an effort to root out dangerous 
individuals. This is an act of brutish force designed to spread fear in 
the immigrant community. Steve Miller whispers in the President's ear: 
Treat them cruelly. Make them afraid, and maybe they will not come.

  They are going to come. The dangers in their home countries are much 
worse. What would any citizen do in America or any other place in the 
world if a gang came to you and said: I am going to rape your daughter 
unless you do what I want; I am going to kill your son; I am going to 
burn your House--you would flee.
  These are not criminals. They are people trying to preserve their 
families, their children, their lives. Yet the President--egged on by 
some of the rightwing news media--tries to make Americans believe they 
are all criminals. Sure, if one of these folks is a bank robber or a 
burglar or hurts somebody, they should be out--one, two, three.
  If they are simply trying to escape brutality, we still should have 
rule of law, but they should be treated with some decency, honor, and 
humanity. That has been the American tradition for some 200-odd years.
  The President's policy is not only cruel--that is the worst of it--
but it is brainless. When it comes to intelligently using our 
immigration resources, the administration should focus on the small 
minority that are actually criminals, not families and not 10-year-
olds.

[[Page S4785]]

  These raids will not make America safer. They will not solve our 
immigration challenges for the reasons I mentioned. They will, instead, 
terrorize innocent families and rip children away from their parents. I 
warn President Trump, the pictures of these raids aren't going to be 
pretty. Average Americans who may agree with him on many issues will be 
appalled.
  President Trump, you are going to have to back off from this cruel 
policy because the American people are a lot better than you. They will 
see the pictures. What are they going to do with a father driving his 
child to school? Will they stop the car, pull the father out? They have 
done that. Will they let the 8-year-old sit in the car traumatized? 
They have done that.
  President Trump, mark my words, there will be a huge backlash against 
this. The American people are not cruel like you in this regard.
  I would plead with the President to call off these raids. We 
Democrats have proposed real solutions to the same migration problems 
that will stop the influx or greatly reduce the influx at the border. 
We would simply say: Let these would-be immigrants from Nicaragua and 
El Salvador and Honduras apply for asylum and beef up the number of 
immigration judges so they can get an adjudication quickly. If they are 
turned down, they can't come. Tough luck. If they get asylum, they 
should be welcomed here as America has always welcomed people, as that 
great Lady in the Harbor of the city I come from has done for 
centuries. That is the solution.
  We should also help these countries go after the gangs that are 
making the people flee. Go after MS-13 down there. Go after the drug 
dealers. Go after the coyotes. It was working in the last few months of 
the Obama administration and even the first few months of the Trump 
administration, until the President rescinded the policy because he got 
mad at somebody, which is typical of how he operates. That is what we 
should do.
  Until then, when these folks get to the border, I call on the 
President to work with us to put an end to the cruelty that the 
migrants are being shown when they come into U.S. custody. They are a 
small percentage of the people in this country. It is not a large 
number in terms of our total population.
  Another round of reports this week describes the horrid conditions 
endured by migrant children at our border. Facilities built for no more 
than 100 people are now housing up to 700 children. Many have nothing 
to sleep on, no change of clothes, and sometimes not enough food. These 
are reports from the President's own executive agencies, not from 
someone outside. In Arizona, these kids are reportedly being abused. 
CBP agents use racist slurs, deprive them of sleeping mats and, in one 
case, according to the report, potentially assaulted a 15-year-old 
girl. It is barbaric. It is not American.
  We need to put an end to this behavior now. We have just passed a 
supplemental appropriations bill to provide more resources to improve 
conditions and speed the asylum process, but it didn't go far enough. 
That is why, later today, I will join with my colleagues Senators 
Merkley and Feinstein to introduce the Stop Cruelty to Migrant Children 
Act. This new legislation would establish mandatory standards for the 
appropriate and humane treatment of children. It would make it easier 
for children to be connected with sponsors and legal counsel, and it 
would, once and for all, end the inhumane practice of separating 
families, pulling children--even little children--away from their 
parents. Democrats have been fighting for these provisions for months. 
We were able to secure some of them in the last border supplemental, 
but unfortunately our Republican colleagues blocked many additional 
provisions from going into the bill. This new legislation marks a clear 
bright line of what is left to be done. Now the only question that 
looms is, Will Leader McConnell finally stand up for the children and 
work with us to pass these new standards into law?
  I want to thank Senators Merkley and Feinstein for working on this 
very important bill. It is a necessary step to restoring America's 
moral credibility. A nation as powerful as ours has no need or right to 
treat the weak and suffering this way. We can deal with our immigration 
issues with dignity, common sense, and rule of law. The bill is how we 
get that done.