[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 172 (Wednesday, October 30, 2019)]
[House]
[Pages H8599-H8600]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             DETERIORATING CONDITIONS AT THE MEXICAN BORDER

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Texas (Mr. Vela) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. VELA. Mr. Speaker, last Friday, many of us attended the funeral 
for our colleague, Elijah Cummings. His story and the service were 
inspirational. On that same day, this article concerning the 
deteriorating conditions of the Mexican border appeared in The Texas 
Tribune about the consequences of the Trump administration's Migrant 
Protection Protocols, or MPP.
  The article describes America's inhumanity unfolding in Matamoros, 
Mexico, a border town in which I, as a child, spent much of my time and 
in which my ancestors are buried. It is a story about America's 
cruelty, for which the President of the United States is directly 
responsible.
  As I thought about what I could do about this situation, I couldn't 
help but ask myself: What would Elijah do?
  By creating obstacle after obstacle, the Trump administration does 
everything within its power to prevent asylum claimants from having 
their rightful day in court, whether they are entitled to stay or not.
  Its latest obstruction is the Migrant Protection Protocols, which are 
anything but protection. The MPP forces asylum claimants to wait in 
dangerous Mexican border towns as their claims are processed, and they 
have proven to be nothing more than a weapon used to destroy America's 
longstanding reputation as the world's greatest melting pot. It is a 
blatant violation of the due process clause of the U.S. Constitution.
  Our Nation's asylum laws guarantee the right to live in the United 
States while claims are adjudicated. Over 1,500 people now live in 
squalor in Matamoros, Mexico. They have no running water and a marginal 
number of toilets for all of them. They are housed in tents and forced 
to bathe naked out in the Rio Grande River. Their daily subsistence 
depends on the goodness of the volunteers from the Rio Grande Valley 
and across this Nation who cross into Mexico every day to provide a 
simple meal. The conditions are worse than those that I have seen in 
Syrian refugee camps.
  This is not the way America is supposed to work.
  The administration claims that by creating secret, sham, tent courts 
along the border that it is processing asylum claims. This is nothing 
more than a glaring effort to obliterate due process. In these so-
called courts constitutional protections vanish, and civil liberties 
disappear.
  The administration's policy is severely restricting and imposing 
barriers on the very fundamental bedrock of our legal system--the 
attorney-client relationship. Lawyers representing these asylum 
claimants are reporting that the MPP policy is making something as 
simple as the opportunity to meet with their client an impossibility. 
As of this August, less than 2 percent of those in MPP court even had 
lawyers representing them. The forcible removal of claimants to another 
country while they await adjudication is a judicial charade, represents 
a total abdication of the principles of fairness that are the 
foundations of our justice system, and makes a mockery of our 
Constitution.
  Not only are asylum claimants being denied their rights, the public 
and the press are consistently denied access to these proceedings.
  What is there to hide?
  The presence of attorneys, advocates, the press, and the public at 
these hearings preserves our democracy. The president of the National 
Association of Immigration Judges states as follows:

       Normal immigration court is open to the public. In civil 
     proceedings in America, one of the fundamental tenets of our 
     justice system is that there has to be accountability to the 
     public. We do not do stuff behind closed doors. That is not 
     what America is about. And yet, with each immigration policy 
     decision the last 3 years, we are moving closer and closer to 
     a model that does not resemble anything in the American 
     judicial system; it is more like what you might see in China 
     or Russia.

  In our system of criminal jurisprudence, a person may be guilty, or 
they may not be. But with regard to jurisprudence, a party may be 
culpable or not culpable. But one thing everyone gets is the 
opportunity to be heard.

[[Page H8600]]

  So we have a choice. We can turn a blind eye to the horror that is 
this administration's asylum policy, or we can answer our colleague, 
Elijah's, call to create a system that stands for justice. Let's tear 
down the Migrant Protection Protocols. Let's hire the judges so that we 
can efficiently and fairly adjudicate asylum claims. Let the asylum 
claimant live in dignity and give them back their right to be in this 
country while they wait for their cases to be heard.
  If asylum is denied after a fair and just adjudication, let the 
claimant leave this country knowing that the United States system of 
government gave them a fair shake.
  If, on the other hand, a claimant is given refugee status, let's 
rally behind them. Let's show them what America is really like. Let's 
help them achieve the American dream. I think that is what Elijah 
Cummings would do.

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