Sheila Jackson Lee: “America is listening to the pain of so many of the Members, my colleagues, as we have experienced the devastation of…”

“America is listening to the pain of so many of the Members, my colleagues, as we have experienced the devastation of watching families torn apart from their babies, their toddlers, their young children. I spent my Sunday and Monday, Father's Day, looking at those who just simply wanted an opportunity, holding baby Roger in my hands, whose mother had died and whose sister was ripped away from him and prosecuted criminally for entering the United States. Or baby Leah, who was 1 year old and was obviously fussy and had been in such a way that she was experiencing trauma. And yet, we now have this executive order that looks as if the President has done something that he could not have done a few hours ago, which is picking up the telephone and telling the people at the border to cease and desist. Those are good people who work there. They are only following orders. But this is a tragic executive order--it has no heart to it--because what it does is, yes, it keeps the families together in a criminal posture and houses them in the same conditions, now on military bases, rather than allowing them to proceed through court proceedings. In my southern district of Texas we have 50,000 cases in backlog because, as I go to the Budget Committee, this administration refuses to give us more judges. Well, they are trying to open one of these places in my congressional district.…”