On the recordJuly 11, 2019
Woman, let me thank the gentlewoman from Texas, Congresswoman Garcia, for her leadership. It can be seen that we are intertwining on this issue, and I thank her for acknowledging the fact that these children are unaccompanied. We are not saying adults. We are not saying criminals. What we are saying is they are children who are unaccompanied migrant children. Many of them are unaccompanied because of the zero-tolerance policy of this administration, the continued policy of separating children from their guardian, from their grandmother, from their aunt. How do I know this? Because I saw this firsthand this past Monday, just 3 days ago, where unaccompanied children were held in a facility. I asked the question: How are they unaccompanied? They are unaccompanied because we took the adults away from them. This is simple to say that these children not be held in Department of Defense facilities. This does not undermine this bill. It simply says that children are precious and should be handled in a manner that provides them with the care, courtesy, and love of the right kind of facilities. But, most importantly, I support this amendment because I join my colleague in saying that we do not accept zero tolerance in separating children. I support the amendment. I thank the gentlewoman for her leadership in taking these children out of the Department of Defense facilities.
