Political Quotes

“Madam President, last Friday, I went with a group of Senate Democrats to visit several detention centers at our southern border, including the Border Patrol facility in McAllen and processing centers at Donna and Ursula, TX. The searing accounts about the conditions endured by the migrant families are true. We saw overcrowding. We heard migrants tell us they are unable to brush their teeth, shower, call their families, or access feminine hygiene products. We saw children in soiled clothing, caged and expressionless. It is heartbreaking--the thousand-smile stares on the faces of toddlers where smiles and laughter should have been. It breaks your heart and makes your blood boil all at once. But we saw something else. I am always looking for the positive. We saw a much better model employed by a nonprofit Catholic Charities center, run by Sister Norma Pimentel. There, families had access to medicine, food, and showers as their asylum cases were being processed in an orderly fashion. These people were being treated humanely, and they were following the law. Sister Norma told us that the government could replicate this model. She explained that if ICE reinstated the Family Case Management Program, we could see as high as 99-percent compliance with immigration court orders without the need for expanded detention and overcrowding. What a difference that could make.…”