Border Security and Immigration Reform Act of 2018

Floor Speech

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Mr. ESPAILLAT. Mr. Speaker, I have a motion to recommit at the desk.

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Mr. ESPAILLAT. I am opposed.

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Mr. ESPAILLAT. Mr. Speaker, this is the final amendment to the bill, which will not kill the bill or send it back to committee. If adopted, the bill will immediately proceed to final passage, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, H.R. 6136, the Border Security and Immigration Reform Act, has been touted as ``the compromise bill.'' But don't let that fool you. This bill cuts legal immigration by 40 percent. This bill cancels diversity green cards. This bill eliminates most family reunification. And finally, this bill hurts asylum seekers.

This bill is anything but a compromise. It is anything but fair. And it is certainly not pro-family.

We have spent the last few days and weeks watching babies ripped away from their parents' arms. We heard their cries in the middle of the night as they missed their parents, and the American people were truly moved by this humanitarian crisis.

This crisis drew attention from international institutions and organizations, such as the United Nations, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, all of them condemning the separation of children from their families.

This Nation has a longstanding tradition of providing asylum to those who flee death, terror, and natural disasters. We need to continue to be a beacon of hope and aspiration for the rest of the world. Asylum seekers, including women who have been raped, deserve due process, not these massive arraignment hearings, which blatantly go against our democratic traditions.

Let's be honest here, last week's executive order and this morning's tweet where the President admits that this bill is about ``strong borders,'' tells us that this is not about our families or injustice. This is about him getting $25 billion for a wall and another $7 billion to hold families in detention facilities. Yes, families in jail or tent cities or maybe even in military camps, similar to the Japanese internment camps used during World War II.

Children really belong in schools. They deserve to be safe with their parents, not to be jailed in cages that look like kennels. Babies as young as 9 months old are being held in my district, in East Harlem, away from their moms.

If Republicans are serious about families, we should pass this motion to recommit and the Keep the Families Together Act. This act is simple. It would protect immigrant children from government-sponsored abuse, and it would keep us in compliance with the Flores decree--yes, a court decree. This decree disallows children to be held for more than 20 days.

It also is in line with yesterday's preliminary injunction, which requires that children younger than 5 years old be returned to their parents within 14 days and older children be returned within 30 days.

Mr. Speaker, show some basic compassion for these young children, their brothers and sisters, and their parents. Every single Member of Congress should be able to stand behind the simple idea that families, regardless of where they come from, belong together. The separation of children from their families constitutes child abuse.

Mr. Speaker, we need to finally ask ourselves: will we continue to be a country of aspirations or will we continue to be a country of deportation? Will we step up to be the country that allowed me, as a young boy, to find safety next to my mother and father?

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Mr. ESPAILLAT. Mr. Speaker, I demand a recorded vote.

A recorded vote was ordered.

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