Forced Family Separation

Floor Speech

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Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, I begin by thanking Senator Merkley. Senator Merkley, in my view, delivered a wake-up call to the country several weeks ago when he went to the border, and I have been very pleased to be able to join him in this effort.

A few days ago, we visited a detention center in Sheridan, OR. We spoke with a father who had been separated from his 18-month-old daughter. The day before Father's Day, colleagues, Senator Merkley and I listened to a father who had been separated from his 18-month-old daughter and had no idea where she was and didn't know when he would see her again. All over the country, as part of this national shame, these stories have been breaking our hearts.

Now, the President has said, for example, that he is turning away gang members. What Senator Merkley and I saw last Saturday was that he is locking up innocent people who are in danger because they refused to submit to gangs in their home countries. That is what we heard at the Sheridan prison just a few days ago.

These stories are particularly poignant in our household. The Wydens had the opportunity to flee the evils of Nazi Germany for the safety and the promise of the United States. My father came as a youngster. He barely spoke English. He studied hard, and when the war came he wanted to wear the uniform of the United States more than anything.

He served in our propaganda arm, where his fluent native German was a great value to the war effort because he wrote propaganda pamphlets that we dropped on the Nazis telling them that they had no chance, that they had no opportunity to survive. Unlike the comical efforts of our enemies, who mangled English, the work of young immigrants like my father, wearing the uniform of the U.S. Army, struck at the morale of German soldiers freezing on the battlefield.

My parents were lucky to be able to make a home in our country, and they raised my brother and me here. They did their part to add to the fabric of the United States.

Now, the Wydens were able to come, but not everyone of their Jewish background was so fortunate. Shiploads of Jews fleeing persecution and violence were deemed undesirable, and they were turned away from America. Let me be clear about what happened. The rallying cry for those who wished to keep people like my Jewish parents out of this country--those who denied Jewish refugees safety in their moment of desperation--was ``America first.''

What happened to those families who turned to the beacon of America for safety and opportunity? Many were forced back to Europe, and many of them ultimately ended up in concentration camps. People don't embark on the harrowing journey to America, much less with kids by their side, unless they are fleeing serious danger and deprivation.

It is with that history that I wanted to join my colleagues tonight on this floor to talk about the heartlessness we see in the Trump zero tolerance policy--thousands of kids, refugees, forcibly separated from their parents. There are reports that border agents lied to mothers and fathers, telling them that their kids were being taken away for a bath, only to have them disappear--a terrifying scenario, colleagues, with grim historical echoes. There are nursing babies taken from their mothers and kids locked in cages for days, regimented like they are criminals facing hard time.

There is a reason that the courts have barred the executive from holding child refugees for more than 20 days. However, it appears the President intends now to ignore the courts and hold children in jails for the foreseeable future.

The administration has gone to great lengths to defend their policy, but they will not stand up and defend it with honest answers. The administration even buried a recent government report showing that refugees are a positive economic force. I gather it is because it just didn't fit the company line.

I will close by saying that in my view a strong leader does not rip kids from their mothers and lock them in cages. A strong leader does not take child hostages to use as political pawns. A strong leader does not lie and mislead the American people about the true nature of the policy he enacts.

In my view, these have been acts of weakness. My view is that the national shame which we have seen over the last few weeks is going to go down as one of the dark moments in American history. It is why it is so important in the days ahead that we come together--Democrats and Republicans--and we restore the greatness of America, which is that we are better and stronger because we stand up for refugees, refugees like the Wydens, who fled Nazi Germany decades ago.

I again thank my colleague from Oregon for his critical leadership on this matter.

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