On the recordJune 21, 2018
I thank the gentlewoman of the Ninth Congressional District of Illinois, a very prominent member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, for really drilling down on a number of the issues that we all have to grapple with here in Congress as Members of the House of Representatives and of the U.S. Senate, that the administration under Donald Trump has to grapple with, and the American people. We really have to search our souls at this time and think about the children. We are talking about infants, who are breastfeeding, taken away from their mothers. We are talking about toddlers who are barely able to walk, who aren't potty-trained, who have to be stacked up with a whole bunch of other children who they have no relationship with. We have heard reports of children trying to console one another and being chastised because they are afraid. They only have one another to cling to, and no one is there to hug them, to soothe them, and to make them feel okay. This is unreal in the 21st century that we would sink to such depths to prove a point. And what is the point again? That you cannot come to the United States seeking refuge from violence, from death and destruction, as so many others have done in prior generations. These people, in particular, have no claim to asylum. That if you dare come and claim it, we will take your children, and we will extract from you even more pain than you left in the country that caused you to flee.…
