Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2020

Floor Speech

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Ms. ESCOBAR. Mr. Chair, I thank Congressman Crow for yielding and for his great work on this amendment.

Mr. Chair, the Census aims to count each person living in the United States every 10 years. It is important that we get this count right because the information helps determine a vast array of decisions, from the number of congressional seats to the allocation of Federal dollars.

For example, according to the Brennan Center for Justice, my home State of Texas stands to gain three congressional seats. These gains will go a long way for Texans and help bring much-needed funds to every community in the State, but we must ensure an accurate count.

With the administration's push to include a citizenship question on the upcoming Census and scare Latino communities like mine into not participating, this amendment underscores the fact that no personally identifiable information can be shared.

This amendment will give all residents, regardless of their immigration status, the confidence they need to answer the survey questions freely and to know that their data will be kept safe and secure.

Mr. Chair, I urge my colleagues to support this amendment.
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Ms. ESCOBAR. Mr. Chair, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

On April 6, 2018, then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions unveiled the zero-tolerance prosecution policy, a memo directing U.S. Attorneys along the southwest border to prosecute all improper entry cases impacting thousands of migrants since its implementation.

My amendment would end this policy and restore prosecutorial discretion at the Department of Justice. This amendment is necessary because zero-tolerance is the center of the administration's cruel family separation policy.

Under zero-tolerance, when an asylum-seeking family crosses the border between a port of entry, parents are placed in DOJ custody while they await their prosecution date. The child is then deemed unaccompanied and placed in the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement. At least 3,000 families that we know of have been separated. Some children were literally ripped from their parents' arms.

At the height of the family separation crisis last summer, the President signed an executive order entitled: ``Affording Congress an Opportunity to Address Family Separation.'' That was on June 20, 2018, exactly 1 year ago today. However, this executive order does not end zero-tolerance. Instead, the executive order favored family detention-- possibly indefinitely--over release.

I have seen the consequences of family separation firsthand in my community. Before zero-tolerance was implemented, the administration used El Paso as a testing ground for these horrific family separations in the fall of 2017. During this pilot program, 281 families were separated. The American Association of Pediatrics tells us that separating children from their parents is highly damaging and can cause long-term health consequences from toxic stress.

These children are suffering emotionally and physically as a result of this government. We must put an end to this cruelty and work on reuniting all of those who remain separated.

Mr. Chair, I urge my colleagues to support this amendment, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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Ms. ESCOBAR. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Serrano).

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Ms. ESCOBAR. Mr. Chair, I have no further speakers. I would just urge all of my colleagues to come to my community to see for themselves the impact of this horrific policy.

Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time

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