Family Separation

Floor Speech

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Mr. CORREA. Mr. Speaker, in late May of this year, a 5-year-old boy named Jose and his father arrived in El Paso, Texas. Together, they had braved the dangerous trek from Honduras to the United States in search of freedom from gang violence, poverty, and hardship.

They came as asylum seekers and put themselves at the mercy of American laws. Instead, they were treated like criminals.

They journeyed across the continent for a life free of violence and a life free of crime. It is a human right enshrined in international law.

When Jose arrived at the border, he was ripped away from his father and detained. Neither one of them were told when, or if, they would see each other again.

Jose was assigned to a host family he had never met, taken to a house he had never lived in, and was treated like a prisoner in the land of freedom.

According to his host family, every night he placed a handwritten picture of his family under his pillow, holding out hope that they would someday be reunited.

This is the picture that he drew.

This is immoral, illegal, and an un-American practice that will not go unchallenged.

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