[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 164 (Wednesday, September 22, 2021)]
[House]
[Pages H5078-H5080]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       WHAT INJUSTICE LOOKS LIKE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 4, 2021, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Green) is recognized for 
60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Mr. GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, and still I rise, Mr. Speaker, and I 
rise tonight to preview a resolution that I hope to present to the 
entirety of the Congress for a vote. It is H. Res. 670.
  I rise tonight to present this resolution because of what I have 
seen, by way of television, at the southern border. What I have seen is 
more than deplorable, more than horrific. For me, it is inhumane. And 
here is the resolution that I hope to have my colleagues give 
consideration to.
  Resolution condemning the inhumane treatment of Haitian migrants at 
the southern border of the United States.
  Whereas, some U.S. Customs--might I pause to indicate that we should 
accentuate the word some, not all, not all U.S. customs agents are 
engaged in this abhorrent behavior, this inhumane behavior. Not all. I 
would never say all. I would never intend all.
  I am in Congress today, I believe, because of an uncle who was a 
deputy sheriff, and he was a person that I had great respect for, great 
admiration for, and he proclaimed when I was a very young child that I 
would be a lawyer. I didn't know what a lawyer was but, because of the 
respect that I had for him and the belief that he was right, I wanted 
to be a lawyer. And from that moment forward, from being a young child, 
less than 10 years of age, I wanted to be a lawyer. Hence, I went to 
law school and, by fortuitous circumstance, I happened to have been 
associated with a professor at the law school who was running for 
public office, which caused me to find my way into politics.
  So I owe a lot to just a sentence, a statement from someone who was 
engaged in law enforcement that I had great respect for.
  So, whereas, some U.S. Customs Border Patrol agents, not all, have 
treated Haitian migrants inhumanely, charging them on horseback, while 
using reins as lashes; now, therefore, be it resolved that the House of 
Representatives condemns and denounces the actions of those Customs and 
Border Patrol agents.
  Note that I said of ``those'' Customs and Border Patrol agents, only 
the ones who engaged in this despicable behavior.
  Resolved that the House of Representatives condemns and denounces the 
actions of those Customs and Border Patrol agents who confronted some, 
not all of the Haitians, but some Haitian migrants on horseback, using 
their reins as lashes.
  I believe that the same House that has condemned its Members for 
conduct thought to be unbecoming; the same House that has condemned the 
behavior of people who are not associated with this House; it has been 
done. I believe that this same House should condemn the conduct of 
these agents, the conduct, what they did. Their conduct should be 
condemned.
  Now, why do I take such a strong position?
  I take such a strong position, because I know what injustice looks 
like. I have had persons in my lifetime to do some very ugly things and 
require some ugly things of me.
  I was required to sit in the back of the bus. I know what injustice 
looks like.
  I know what it tastes like. I had to drink from filthy, colored water 
fountains. White water fountain; colored water fountain. White water 
fountain; pristine, clean. Colored water fountain; filthy. But that is 
what I was relegated to.
  I know what it smells like. I had to go into necessary facilities. 
That is what we call it in the law, but a necessary facility is nothing 
more than a toilet. And I was forced to go into these filthy toilets. 
And this is where I would have to wash my hands in a filthy facility 
with water that sometimes was colored in its own being. It was brown.
  So I know what it looks like; I know what it tastes like; I know what 
it smells like. But I also know what it hurts like.
  I know what it is like to be required to leave a seat so that someone 
else could take a seat. I know what that feels like. I know what it 
feels like to have to step off the sidewalk to let other persons pass. 
This was the segregated south that I grew up in.
  I am a son of the segregated south. The rights and privileges that 
the Constitution recognized for me, my neighbors in the segregated 
south denied me. So I know what injustice is like.
  I also know what invidious discrimination is like, but tonight let's 
just talk about injustice. And because I know what it looks like, I 
also know how it behaves.
  Injustice is not static, it is dynamic. It is like this pandemic. It 
is like the virus. It can metamorphose.

  Do not assume that the injustice inflicted upon some today will not 
be inflicted upon others tomorrow. Do not assume that injustice will 
only find its way to those who look like me. Injustice has a way of 
metamorphosing into a hate that can consume all of us.
  With this understanding, I want to just share some of what I see as I 
reflect on what happened at the border.
  This is something that I believe to be relevant, in that this is a 
depiction of where Black people were at one time in this country. If 
you will look to the far end of this picture, it is actually a 
portrait, if you will. You will see a person on a horse, and he has a 
whip and he seems to be screaming, and he seems to be about to use this 
whip; he is about to lash this person who is between him and another 
person on a horse.
  Now, what is to be noticed about this is that the person who is on 
foot, this person seems to have his hands in a position of surrender; 
doesn't have a weapon; doesn't seem to be a threat to men on horses.
  And if you will note, there is a rope that has him tethered to the 
horse or the man in front of it.
  And if you will note, look at his eyes, if you can see his eyes. He 
has a look of regret and sorrow. He has a look of a person who wishes 
that he could somehow express something that would cause his condition 
to subside. He seems to be pleading with the person in front of him, 
possibly realizing what is about to happen as a result of what the 
person behind him will do.
  This is a sad commentary on our country. It is a sad commentary on 
what the United States of America was. It is a sad commentary. It is 
something we don't like to discuss. We don't want to acknowledge, we 
don't want it taught in our schools that this is the truth about a 
bygone era in this country.
  But you can't escape the truth. Truth crushed to Earth will rise 
again. This is a sad commentary.
  Let's move forward.
  By the way, the prior depiction was from 1817.
  This depiction occurred at the Edmund Pettus Bridge. All in Congress 
are aware of the Edmund Pettus Bridge because the Honorable John Lewis 
was here, and we all know his story of what happened at the Edmund 
Pettus Bridge.
  John Lewis and I were friends. The Honorable John Lewis and I were 
friends. We went to jail together several times. We talked to each 
other while we were in jail. John Lewis was in jail the same as he was 
with us. He was a wonderful, marvelous person, and I miss him. I 
believe we do, all of us.
  But I remember him explaining how you cannot tolerate injustice. You 
can't. Those who tolerate injustice perpetuate injustice. Some things 
bear repeating. Those who tolerate injustice perpetuate injustice.
  This gathering at the Edmund Pettus Bridge was about people who were 
no longer going to tolerate injustice. They made their minds up.
  If you have ever been to the Edmund Pettus Bridge, and if you haven't 
been there, you should go. The Edmund Pettus Bridge has a crest such 
that when you initially approach it, you can't readily see what lies on 
the other side. You don't know what your fate is, if there is something 
that would harm you on the other side.

[[Page H5079]]

  


                              {time}  1915

  When you march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge and you reach that 
crest, you can see what your fate is, if there are persons of ill will 
waiting for you.
  These marchers, on what is known now as Bloody Sunday, were marching 
up the Edmund Pettus Bridge from Selma to Montgomery. They had no 
weapons. They had no means of defending themselves against persons who 
had clubs. But their fate, they saw. Yet, they marched on. As they were 
confronted by the constabulary, they marched on.
  I have often thought, if they had resisted and put up a fight, would 
Bloody Sunday have the same representation, the same meaning that it 
has now because when these images were shown around the world, it gave 
a President the opportunity to take some affirmative action to bring 
about significant change.
  But this is what was happening on Bloody Sunday. You see, there are 
men on horses. These men on horses are moving toward the Edmund Pettus 
Bridge, which you can see in the distance, and you can see that there 
are other men moving this way. In here, you have peaceful protesters, 
just marching.
  This is a representation that a good many persons of African ancestry 
have indelibly printed within their memory. Bloody Sunday changed our 
lives because there were people who were willing to make great 
sacrifices so that we could confront injustice, not tolerate it. They 
didn't tolerate it.
  Now, let's fast-forward. This is a depiction, a true and accurate 
depiction, I believe, of what I have seen televised and of what 
happened at our southern border.
  If you didn't have to sit in the back of the bus, if you didn't have 
to step off the sidewalk to let others pass, if you have never had a 
cross burned--I say ``in my honor''--but burned in your yard, you may 
not see what I see. You may see agents doing their job, trying to make 
sure that people who are invading our country are prevented from 
invading our country. This is what you may see.
  But I believe people of goodwill, regardless of who, when people of 
goodwill see this, people of goodwill are of the opinion that this is 
an injustice. I don't believe that people of goodwill who never have 
experienced what I have experienced and seen these other 
representations, I don't believe that people of goodwill can see a 
means by which we can justify this kind of behavior.
  This is behavior that we cannot tolerate in a country that pledges 
allegiance to liberty and justice for all. You can't tolerate this in a 
country that requires in some places respect for the flag. I believe 
that you can respect the flag if you choose to. But there are some 
places in the country where people want to require--maybe I should say 
``want to require'' you to respect the flag. I believe you respect the 
flag because you respect what it stands for.
  I say the Pledge of Allegiance. You cannot tag me as a flag burner, 
but I respect those who want to burn it. You have every right to do so, 
and I will respect your right to burn it. But I am not a flag burner. I 
believe in the country and what it stands for, the ideals of this 
country.
  If you believe in the ideals of liberty and justice for all--not all 
who were born here, by the way, but all, regardless of your race, 
creed, color, or your place of origin. This is what this country stands 
for. If you stand for this, there is no way you can tolerate this.
  If you stand for we the people, if you stand for a more perfect 
Union, you can't tolerate this. It can't just be another thing that 
happened and let's go on with our lives.
  I am not a person who believes that we should simply live and let 
live. I am not a live-and-let-liver. Live and let live, to me, means I 
live my life; you live your life; I am not going to get in your way and 
don't you get in my way. That is not my philosophy.
  I believe in live and help live. If I see someone in harm's way, I 
believe I have a duty, a moral obligation, a moral imperative, to do 
what I can to help that person in harm's way.
  These persons are in harm's way. We have a moral imperative to help 
these persons. That is why I am presenting this resolution. It is a 
part of a moral imperative.
  To be very honest with you, I hope every Member will vote for it. I 
hope the leadership will allow it to come to the floor. To be very 
honest, to be totally, completely, and absolutely honest, if no one 
votes for it, I am going to present it.
  I have a responsibility, and I am going to live up to my 
responsibility. I didn't come here to just get along so that I could 
move along.
  We have a moral imperative to be helpful. Let me expound upon this 
imperative for just a second or two.
  There is something called TPS, temporary protective status. TPS has 
been accorded to Haitians who are residents in the country prior to a 
certain date. TPS means that we won't send them back to Haiti because 
we have concluded that it would not be safe for them to go back to 
Haiti. So, we are not sending them back.
  That is TPS, except if you are at the southern border, except if you 
are at the southern border and you are trying to get into this country. 
Then we send you back, and we do so under another section of the law.
  But I have to ask myself: How can we rationalize saying that it is 
okay to send them back, these persons, when we already have said that 
other persons from the same country deserve temporary protection, the 
temporary protective status?
  Then you have to ask yourself about these people. Where are they 
from? Where did they come from just before getting here? Where did they 
come from? My guess is they didn't swim across the Gulf of Mexico a 
week or two before. No, the facts are that they didn't and that many of 
them have been living in places south of the border for years, some 
more than 10 years.
  So, we decide that persons who are protected with TPS, not these 
persons, but who are going to go to a country where persons are not 
going to be sent because it is not safe to send them there, we decide 
that is where we are going to send these people who haven't been there 
in 10 years--not these specific people, but Haitians who are out there 
among the throngs of people, out there among the throngs under the 
bridge at the southern border. We decided we are going to send them to 
Haiti.

  I was in a hearing just recently with the experts, the people who 
know. My question was: When we send people to Haiti who haven't been 
there in a decade, what do we give them? What kind of help do we give 
them?
  Well, here is what we give them: a cell phone and some money, not a 
lot of money. At the time, there was no real answer as to how much. My 
guess is not a lot.
  By the way, this doesn't just happen to Haitians, this sending back. 
Mr. Jose Escobar, who lives in my district, went to report to the 
authorities with his wife and child. They took him from his wife and 
his child, with $20 in his pocket, and sent him to El Salvador. He 
hadn't been to El Salvador in 15 years.
  He came here by virtue of a desire to escape harm's way. His mother 
received TPS, brought him here as a child, about 15 years of age, but 
he didn't get TPS--some mixup in the paperwork. So they had been trying 
for years to right the wrong in terms of the mixup in paperwork.
  It took 2 years to bring Mr. Escobar home. But my staff and I worked 
for 2 years, and I went to El Salvador myself multiple times. We 
brought Mr. Escobar home.
  I am not giving up on the Escobars of the world, and I am not giving 
up on these persons. I don't know them, but I have a moral obligation 
to make sure that an injustice is not tolerated.
  Now, let's talk about one additional thing.
  I suppose I could leave this up. Maybe this person had done something 
wrong. I can't see why we would have this, what appears to be the reins 
of the horse moving in his direction.
  But here is what is interesting. In all the shots that I saw, the 
reins were always on the side where the people were. The reins weren't 
off on this side. They were on the side where the people were. If you 
want to make the argument that they were not using reins as lashes, you 
can. But I find it highly coincidental--too much of a coincidence to be 
a coincidence--that the reins are always on the side with the people.
  I think I will leave it.

[[Page H5080]]

  Friends, these are similar moments in time, moments in time that can 
impact the rest of time. Tolerate this and you are not seeing the last 
of it. That is why I believe that we in this House should take up a 
resolution that condemns the actions.
  I am not condemning the person. I am condemning what the person is 
doing. He is entitled to due process. But in the court of public 
opinion, and based on what my eyes see, this behavior should not be 
tolerated.
  Someone has said, well, you need to hear his side of the story. I 
don't mind hearing his side of the story. But I also understand what I 
see.
  You can explain anything away in today's culture and today's time 
with the mindsets that we have in this country. You can explain 
anything away. But I believe my eyes. You don't have to believe yours. 
I believe my eyes. This is wrong. This is an injustice, not something 
that this House should tolerate.
  I have already sent the letter, I believe--as I was leaving my 
office, I asked my staff to send it--to leadership, asking that the 
resolution be heard.
  It is not a privileged resolution. For those who don't know, a 
privileged resolution is one that does not require the consent of 
leadership to be brought to the floor for a vote. This is not a 
privileged resolution, so we have to have the consent.

                              {time}  1930

  It is no secret that I am making the request. I have great respect 
for all of the leadership in this Congress, on both sides of the aisle, 
but I want to let people know that I am going to ask that the 
resolution be voted on. It is very simple. It is not difficult to 
comprehend. There is nothing enigmatic about it. It is very pragmatic, 
in my mind's eye.
  But I want it to be brought to the floor. And I want people to know 
that we who represent the people of this country--we who represent the 
people of this country will not tolerate this kind of behavior.
  I believe that if we do so, we will prevent many other persons from 
having to suffer the same kind of injustice. I think we have a moral 
imperative to bring this to the floor.
  I will close with this. C. A. Tindley shared these words that I will 
paraphrase. He reminds us that:
  ``Harder yet may be the fight;
     right may often yield to might;
     wickedness a while may reign;
     Satan's cause may seem to gain.
     There is a God that rules above,
     with hand of power and heart of love;''
     And when I am right, that God will help me fight.
     Harder yet may be the fight.

  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

                          ____________________