Tearing Immigrant Children Away From Their Parents

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. GONZALEZ of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to remind the American people of the quick phrase that was recently used by the current administration: ``It's not our fault.''

It is not our fault. Really? That is that sentiment of our U.S. Attorney General who deflected the responsibility for a zero-tolerance policy that allows the separation of children from their parents.

In the month of May, this evil new policy led to the separation of more than 600 children in a short 13-day span.

Have we lost all our human decency? We are a Nation of laws. How can you explain family separation when it comes to asylum seekers? They have not crossed the border illegally, and yet they are being detained and their families separated as if they were here illegally.

This is a clear attack on immigrants who have exhausted every last resource to seek refuge in the Nation that once welcomed the tired, the poor, and huddled masses yearning to breathe free.

Have we forgotten the words spoken by Mark 12:31 to love thy neighbor as thyself? Is our new message to blame others and not take responsibility?

I think it is important to consider the possible logistical challenges before implementing such policies. Perhaps instead of calling for zero tolerance first, you put prosecutors in place and facilities to house folks in a humane manner. Instead, we asked the U.S. Department of Justice to lend us their lawyers and to rent out vacant Walmart stores.

I have no illusions about what the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Health and Human Services are hiding behind those curtains.

We have to remember that these immigrant families are not committing dangerous crimes. Asylum seekers are not criminals and are not here illegally.

I represent an area along the border where crime is at record lows, yet the administration keeps saying the opposite. I believe our local officers and local courts and local judges and prosecutors in both State and Federal courts in my region. I believe them when they tell me what the crime rate is, what is happening in our communities.

Right now, the only increased criminal activity I see is the egregious method of ripping families apart and herding immigrant children into a broken system.

This is not the America the world knows and loves. This is a shameful period in our history, and we in this body have the responsibility to correct it.

Mr. Speaker, if any of these frightened, innocent children ask a Member of this House why they are being separated from their families, we cannot merely say: It is not our fault.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source