Filemon Vela: “How we treat refugees seeking safety is not a test of our National security, but a test of our National character.”

Blaming and punishing the people who are seeking protection is inhumane.

This is not who we are as a country. Our legacy--and the future we hope to leave to our children--call on us to be a Nation that welcomes and defends the rights of the most vulnerable among us.

It is with a great deal of regret that I cannot join family and friends of Jesse Thomas Rhodes, known as Tom, as he is laid to rest today. Tom was, as he would often remind us, the first baby born on January 1, 1955, in Memphis, Tennessee…

I must say now I get it. Your--your testimony has been so compelling and shed so much light on the battle that you consistently wage to protect the very people for which the Voting Rights Act was passed.