Providing for Consideration of the Senate Amendment to H.R. Emergency Supplemental Appropriations for Humanitarian Assistance and Security At the Southern Border Act, 2019

Floor Speech

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Mrs. TORRES of California. Madam Speaker, I rise in support of the rule.

Yes, indeed, we have a responsibility to act. As Speaker Pelosi has said, we must do this for the sake of the children, and I thank her for not capitulating to the Senate demands for a blank check.

When I reflect on the number of deaths that we have seen at the border, when I reflect on the horrific conditions in facilities where children are being held in ice-cold cells with no one to care for them but a child stranger--conditions in these facilities are horrific--I ask myself: Is this the America that I came to as a young child? Is this the America that my son swore to protect when he joined the U.S. Air Force? This surely isn't the country that welcomed me as a young child from Guatemala.

But we must work toward that American ideal that we all share. We cannot simply allocate funds to agencies where we have seen numerous children die in their custody.

No blank checks.

No more torturing of babies.

No more separating infants from their mothers.

This legislation brings funds to the children that are urgently needed.

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Mrs. TORRES of California. It brings more transparency to CBP and ICE and HHS, and it contains important provisions to protect children. It ensures that the emergency funding that Congress provides is spent on what it is intended for and not the President's deportation force.

So I look forward to supporting this rule, and I urge all of my colleagues to join me in doing so.

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