[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 120 (Wednesday, July 17, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4895-S4896]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                            Border Security

  Mr. President, this past weekend, my wife Connie and I went to El 
Paso, to the U.S.-Mexico border, to bear witness to this humanitarian 
crisis. We met with children and families coming to our country to flee 
violence and persecution. These are families just like our own who only 
want a safe place for their kids to lay their heads at night. It 
underscored the inhumanity and coldness of President Trump's family 
separation policy--something I still can't believe our country is 
doing. In fact, the leader of our country is almost gleeful and 
bragging about this family separation policy of taking their children 
away from their parents.
  We talked to one mother from Honduras. She and her teenage son and 6-
year-old daughter were fleeing violent gangs who already murdered her 
brother. She choked back tears as she told her story. She arrived in 
the United States and was sent back to Juarez, Mexico, where she and 
her children slept outdoors on rocks and were given no access to even 
basic hygiene. She told us how hard it was to see her daughter cry, 
that ``it was very hard for me seeing her treated as if she was a 
criminal.'' We are talking about a 6-year-old little girl. That is 
something no Member of this body would stand for if it were their 
child, but it happens to be a child from somewhere else who wants to be 
able to live a decent, safe life.
  This story is a reminder of why the policy the Trump administration 
announced yesterday makes no sense for the American people and is so 
dangerous for those families. The President wants to require refugees 
to apply for asylum in the first country they pass through. For 
refugees like this mother, that country would be Guatemala, but people 
are fleeing Guatemala too.
  I talked to one volunteer at Annunciation House, the shelter we 
visited that takes in refugees after they are released from CBP 
custody. She said their numbers at the shelter were down recently. That 
has her worried because she knows that when families make it to the 
Annunciation House, they will be safe and well cared for. The staff are 
overwhelmingly volunteers, people in their churches and neighborhoods 
who want to help their fellow human beings. Now she is terrified that 
even more families are trapped in Juarez and other dangerous cities.

  It is despicable how little compassion the President and his 
administration have. It is mind-boggling. It is not who we are as a 
country. It is not what people in Ohio think we should do. Yet this 
government thinks it is proper to separate children from their 
families.
  As we were in El Paso, throughout the day, what went over and over in 
my mind was Matthew 25: When I was hungry, you fed me. When I was 
thirsty, you gave me drink. When I was sick, you visited me. When I was 
a stranger, you welcomed me.
  I have read a lot of translations of that, and some translations say: 
When I was thirsty, you gave me drink. When I was hungry, you fed me. 
What you did for the least of these, you did for me.
  There are other translations that I like more than that: When I was 
hungry, you fed me. When I was thirsty, you gave me drink. When I was a 
stranger, you visited me. What you did for those less important, you 
did for me.
  I have read many translations, but do you know what translation I 
have never read? When I was hungry, you fed me. When I was thirsty, you 
gave me drink. When I was in prison, you visited me. When I was a 
stranger, you welcomed me but only if I had the proper paperwork.
  That is not in Matthew 25. Only this administration that splits up 
families will say: When I was a stranger, you welcomed me but only if I 
had the proper paperwork.
  These are families whose lives are in danger. They are victims of 
drug violence and sexual violence. They are people who came hundreds of 
miles--not because they want so much to come to America, but they want 
to get away from the violence and the chances of death.
  As I said, I met a mother and her son and her daughter. Her brother 
was murdered by these gangs. She came north. And President Trump, 
having no empathy, not caring about other human beings--especially if 
they look like they might be from Honduras or Guatemala or El 
Salvador--calls them names. He says: Go back to the countries you live 
in. Whether you call it racist or not, it is simply inhumane.
  Despite seeing the inhumanity of this administration's policies--when 
we

[[Page S4896]]

were there, we weren't even allowed to see the worst. Frankly, 
government employees who were there were mostly doing their best. But 
the people who make these decisions--the people in the White House, the 
people at Mar-a-Lago, the people who don't have any idea of what people 
can see--they didn't want us to see the worst of the worst. They were 
denying me, as a representative of 12 million people in my State--they 
don't want people to see what they are doing to these kids. It is 
troubling because Ohio tax dollars are supporting them. It makes you 
wonder what else the administration is hiding.
  Despite all that, so many parts of this trip were inspiring. We saw 
the passion and dedication of advocacy groups. So many people in Texas, 
in Ohio, in Iowa, in Minnesota, and in Wyoming had traveled on their 
vacation time to these border communities to try to help these 
refugees, people whose lives are in danger. They were trying to help 
feed them and clothe them and visit with them and heal them. They were 
trying to help because they know our government hasn't. They know our 
government--President Trump and the people around him--have abandoned 
them.
  I saw the Border Network for Human Rights shining a light on 
migrants' mistreatment and abuse to hold our government accountable. We 
saw the generosity and kindness of the volunteers at Annunciation 
House. All of those advocates and volunteers represent the best of 
American values.
  I remember seeing a bus of refugees who arrived at Annunciation House 
holding babies and children, smiling and waving at us. You could see 
the relief on their faces because they saw people who remembered: When 
I was a stranger, you welcomed me. They saw American citizens who love 
this country, Americans who understand our values, Americans who know 
we are a nation of immigrants. Those children knew they were welcomed. 
Their families knew their children were safe.
  We saw the innocence of those children who find joy through play even 
at the darkest times, after witnessing horrors many of us can only 
imagine.
  Connie held a smiling baby. I picked up a Wiffle Ball bat and handed 
it to one of the children, and then I picked up a ball. I was told this 
little boy had probably never held a baseball bat because in Guatemala 
and Honduras and El Salvador, they mostly play soccer. I pitched to 
him, and he was kind of a natural. It is a reminder of our common 
humanity--something I hope my colleagues will keep in mind as we think 
about and actually fix our immigration system.
  One place where we ought to be able to start is on something so many 
of us in both parties agree on--that we have to find a solution for the 
Dreamers who are American in every sense but the paperwork.
  Let me tell you a story. I was in Toledo, OH, 2 months ago. I met a 
young woman who is probably in her midtwenties. She is married with a 
small child. She works full time. She has been in this country since 
she was 4. Her parents brought her from Central America. She doesn't 
remember Central America; she was 4. She is from Toledo, not from 
Guatemala anymore. Her parents speak Spanish. She speaks Spanish at 
home, but in every other way, she is as American as just about anybody 
else in Toledo. She said that she and her husband have one car. She 
goes to work. She drops him off, and she takes the car to work and then 
picks him up at the end of the day. She said: Senator, when I go to 
work every day, I go outside and I check my turn signal and I check my 
brake lights. When I stop at a stop sign, I count to three because I am 
terrified I am going to get picked up for a traffic violation and 
deported.
  She works hard. She pays her taxes. She does what we ask her to do. 
She is active in her church. She does all the things that Italian and 
French immigrants coming to the United States have done.
  In fact, I was talking to a gentleman who works downstairs in this 
body. He works in the Senate. He has worked here for 40 years. He came 
from Italy when he was 10. He said he was discouraged and unhappy about 
President Trump's comments about sending them back to where they came 
from. He said: When I was a kid, my parents were Italian. Their English 
isn't as good as mine. I was 10 years old. People told us to go back 
where we came from.
  That is just wrong.
  I hope my colleagues will keep in mind the comments from a young 
activist in El Paso, Senaida Navar. She is a Dreamer. She was raised in 
El Paso. She is a faculty member at the University of Texas at El Paso. 
She has dedicated her life to fighting for immigrant families. She has 
been a Dreamer for years. She said: ``I don't know what it means to be 
without anxiety. That is not a dignified way to live.'' She is always 
worried. She is worried like that young woman in Toledo.

  We share a common human dignity. It is despicable that this 
administration tries to rob people of that. I hope my colleagues think 
about that. We know the way we solve our complex immigration problem 
isn't by locking up families and children in cages. It is not by 
tearing apart families or by throwing out hard-working, law-abiding 
teachers and workers and students and families of servicemembers. Many 
of these Dreamers end up in the military. They have known no other home 
but America. We can't abandon our values--the same values that have 
made the United States a beacon of hope around the world for 
generations.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mrs. SHAHEEN. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.