On the recordJuly 30, 2019
recently, I joined the Senate delegation to visit the southern border and view firsthand the migration and humanitarian crisis facing the United States. We visited the Donna Holding Facility, the Catholic Charities Respite Center, the McAllen Border Patrol Station, and the Ursula Centralized Processing Center. Earlier this week, I held a roundtable discussion on my trip at the Sacred Heart of Jesus Church in Highlandtown. The group was organized by the Latino Providers Network in Baltimore, which included representatives from the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, Catholic Relief Services, Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, and other nonprofits in the community that do work in Baltimore and at our border. I was impressed by the Catholic Charities Respite Center run by Sister Norma Pimentel. The center provides a warm meal, a shower, a change into clean clothes, medicine, and other desperately needed supplies. These migrants are very lucky to make it there. What I saw in McAllen, by contrast, was very disturbing. I saw many families huddled together in overcrowded conditions. I saw children behind fencing and, basically, in cages. Some children wore clothing that was soiled and had not been changed since they arrived in the United States. Children and families were supposed to be there in temporary holding only for a day or two, but we heard stories that families are being held for up to 10 to 14 days and, in some cases, even longer.…





