Tearing Immigrant Children Away From Their Parents

Floor Speech

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Mr. CORREA. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to address this body on a very important issue that we need to bring to the attention of the people of this country.

I am proud to have so many of my colleagues here today to stand up against the President's policy of systematically tearing immigrant children away from their families. These innocent children are being held under inhumane conditions at detention facilities, alone and apart from their parents.

President Trump's chief of staff, General Kelly, recently, when asked about this, said:

The children will be taken care of, put into foster care, or whatever.

This is an unacceptable answer.

The administration is tearing children away from their parents, including infants and toddlers, and in some cases, holding these children in cages.

The United Nations has noted that children arriving at the U.S. border who plead for asylum with their parents is a legal form of entry, and separating children away from their parents is illegal and a violation of human rights.

These immoral practices are being executed by the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security, to instill fear and deter families, who are already fleeing extreme fear and violence in their native homes. They are trying to, again, deter them from seeking legal protection in America.

For example, from October 2017 to April 2018, 700 children were separated. But in just the first 13 days of May of this year, 2018, 658 children were separated, which almost equals the previous 6 months. Children are literally being ripped from their mothers' arms, who are simply seeking safety for their families. And immorally, the administration is breaking up families, plain and simple. Asylum seekers should not be held hostage and penalized for wanting to be protected from harm.

This new policy is clearly unprecedented, cruel, and altogether dead wrong. It is imperative that we stand up against the administration's un-American policies towards families.

Today, my colleagues and I are standing up against this barbaric action and demand the administration stop punishing children and stop punishing families who are fearing for their lives.

Lofgren), my good friend and distinguished colleague.

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Mr. CORREA. Mr. Speaker, I thank the distinguished gentlewoman from California for those remarks.

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Mr. CORREA. Mr. Speaker, I thank the distinguished gentleman from California for his comments.

Moore), my distinguished colleague.

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Mr. CORREA. Mr. Speaker, I thank the distinguished gentlewoman from Wisconsin, and I completely agree with her. We cannot be silent in these very challenging times. The whole world is upside down, and people are counting on us to make sure that we remind people of what is going on in Washington.

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Mr. CORREA. Mr. Speaker, I thank the distinguished gentleman from Texas, and I have to say, when we talk about ``it's not our fault,'' let's remember Central American violence, gang violence, drugs, gangs. What fuels it? Our insatiable appetite in the United States for drugs. Our dollars that go into Central America, this is what fuels the violence.

These children, these families, when they come of age, MS-13, whom the President talks about very often, tells these families: ``Either your children join the gang or they die.'' These parents make a third choice, which is to flee, to escape violence, and to seek asylum in America.

It is not our fault? Those are our dollars that are fueling that violence.

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Mr. CORREA. Mr. Speaker, I thank my distinguished colleague, the gentleman from California (Mr. Peters), and I also want to thank him for citing President Reagan's name in his comments, President Reagan from the good State of California, my home.

Governor Reagan of the State of California, he understood family; he protected families; and President Reagan passed immigration reform in the United States. Thank you, President Reagan.

Maloney), my good friend and distinguished colleague.

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Mr. CORREA. Mr. Speaker, I thank the distinguished gentlewoman from New York for her comments.

I yield to the gentleman from Rhode Island (Mr. Cicilline), my good friend and distinguished colleague.
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Mr. CORREA. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman for his comments, and I think he is absolutely correct. History is going to judge us, and we are going to look back years from now and say: What did we do?

We have to make sure we are not silent in this very special moment in our history. I thank the gentleman for coming.

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Mr. CORREA. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman, Mr. Adam Smith, very much for coming over and sharing his thoughts. It is very important. Again, we cannot forget.

Jackson Lee), my good friend and distinguished colleague from the good State of Texas

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Mr. CORREA. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague Congresswoman Jackson Lee, for her comments.

I agree with her. This is a call to action. At this moment in history, we cannot be silent. At this moment in history, we cannot look away. And in this moment of history, we cannot ignore what we know is clearly going on around us. I thank the gentlewoman for her comments.

Mr. Speaker, I now yield to Mr. Joaquin Castro, my good friend and distinguished colleague from Texas.

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Mr. CORREA. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague, Mr. Castro from the good State of Texas, for his comments.

Mr. Speaker, I am grateful for the opportunity to address this most important issue of asylum and this most important issue of children seeking asylum in this great country of ours.

We have to remember who this country is. We have to remember who we are as a people. We are all immigrants in this country. Except if you are native-born, Native American, you are not. But 99.9 percent of us were all immigrants. We all came to this country, our forefathers came to this country seeking a better life, seeking better opportunities, and seeking to run away from tyranny that was provided to them by other countries.

Today, I hope that the people who are watching and the people who are listening understand what is at stake today. We cannot look away. We cannot ignore what is going on.

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Mr. CORREA.

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