Political Quotes

“How do you process it? And I think that in the end, I continue to think about the ways in which we are criminalizing migrants, criminalizing people who are fleeing violence, tremendous violence in their countries. Just the other day there was an article in The New York Times, I think, that talked about in Honduras, which is where many of the parents that I met with that were in that Federal prison separated from their children, many of them were from Honduras. This article described how you have two choices: You either get killed by the gangs or you leave. That is the only choice you have. I also went to Tijuana. I think I was the first Member to go to Tijuana, and I met with a 15-year-old boy who had been shot in both knees. And he had a phone message on his cell phone from his mother who said: Please do not come back here. Just go. Just go. Get to the United States. Get to a place of safety. Seek asylum. I will be devastated to have you leave me, but I just want you to stay alive. What parent doesn't want their child to stay alive? And this young man who talked to me was a strong young man, but he started weeping, talking about how he had to leave his mother and come to the United States as an unaccompanied child. It was devastating to hear, absolutely devastating to hear.…”