Jeff Merkley actually said...

"I wanted to start with a letter that a group of Senators sent on August 16th."

"this was a deliberate decision by Kelly, by Steve Miller, by the President, by Jeff Sessions to inflict harm on children in order to send a political message."

"the entire premise of this program is completely flawed. The administration for publicity said this is catch and release, that people don't show up to their hearings. But the administration shut down ..."

"the administration basically lied to the American public, said people aren't showing up for their hearings, so we have to do something dramatically different, that is to treat people as criminals."