State of Our Union is Traumatizing Our Children

Floor Speech

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Ms. PRESSLEY. Madam Speaker, the state of our Union is traumatizing our children. Today, I refuse to give an audience to a man who breaks promises and steals childhoods, but instead, I rise to address the children directly.

Madam Speaker, I rise today for 2-month-old Juan Nicolas. Juan Nicolas, you came into this world mere weeks ago and already America has broken her promise to you.

At barely 2 months old, you should know only the comfort of a soft blanket and your mother's voice. Your cries should be met with warm milk and lullabies, but your small body has been detained by the State. You and your mother were imprisoned at Dilley Detention Center, a for- profit prison. Your mother told us you were in pain. I can only imagine the pain she felt, too. Your small body vomited up the formula you drank. The water there is dirty. The stress and trauma of being shackled and locked up in the precious days of postpartum made nursing impossible. You were finally seen by a doctor, returned to the baby prison that is Dilley, and then mere hours later, your entire family, your parents, and your 1-year-old sister, Mia, were forcefully deported and left along the side of the road in Mexico.

You, my sweet boy, are precious and deserving of love and safety. No child should endure what you are going through. Journalists, pediatricians, and people of good conscience have rallied around your family to keep you safe.

Madam Speaker, I rise today for 2-year-old Daphne from Massachusetts. Daphne, your dad, Fidel, loves you more than anything. Your father has no criminal record. He has done nothing wrong. I know it is hard for you to understand why your father suddenly disappeared. ICE says Fidel was picked up as a collateral during an ICE operation in Chelsea, Massachusetts. Fathers are not collateral. They are someone's whole world.

Daphne, your dad missed you every day that you were apart. You are together again, but you never should have been separated. We will do everything we can to keep him home with you where he belongs.

Madam Speaker, I rise today for 9-year-old Susej. The world has heard your pleas from behind the walls of the Dilley Detention Center. You have been imprisoned for over 60 days, and I want you to know that so many people are pressing for your freedom. You deserve a joyful life free from fear and a childhood filled with love, but this White House and everyone complicit in their wholesale child abuse and neglect has ignored your cries. Your story, brilliance, and voice belong everywhere, so let me read directly from a letter you wrote.

You pleaded: I miss my school and my friends. I feel bad since when I came here to this place because I have been here too long. I have been 2 years and 6 months in the United States, and I was happy with my friends in the school, but now I need to leave. Seeing how people like me, immigrants, are being treated changes my perspective about the U.S. My mom and I came to the U.S. looking for a good job and a safe place to live, and my mom was looking for a good job.

You believed in the promise of America. I will not stop fighting until you are free.

Madam Speaker, I rise today for siblings from Chelsea in my district. Liam, Ailany, and Ashley. Ailany, you were only 2 weeks old when your father was taken by ICE. In the precious days he spent with you, he cared for you with so much love and devotion. I am heartbroken that as the days drag on you are missing out on his voice soothing you, his arms cradling you back to sleep. There is no doubt he loves you deeply. His absence has nothing to do with you.

Instead, it is the work of a cruel and callous government that is causing your family lasting harm and heartbreak.

Liam, I know at 3 years old you feel the ache of absence and constantly ask for daddy. Your big sister, Ashley, has lost her advocate. Your dad worked hard to get her the support she needed to navigate school and her autism diagnosis daily.

Your mom is a determined woman and working hard to keep you all safe, but the weight of this is something no one should have to endure.

Madam Speaker, I say to Ailany, Liam, and Ashley that we will do everything we can to bring your daddy back home. He is a good man who has done nothing wrong, and the courts agreed. While he has been brought back to the United States, he remains in ICE custody, denied precious time with his family and his future hanging in the balance. We will not stop fighting until your family is reunited.

Madam Speaker, Juan Nicolas, Susej, Ailany, Liam, Ashley, and Daphne, today, I recognize you as my honorary guests to the state of the Union, not because the man who imprisoned you or denied you your parents' care deserves an audience, but because you belong everywhere. You deserve to live and thrive and to take up space.

The Halls of Congress don't belong to a dictator. They belong to you. Childhood should be a birthright, but today in America, it is a privilege afforded to the few and not the many. I will fight for you like you are my own because you deserve that.

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