Agriculture and Nutrition Act of 2018
Floor Speech
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Mr. HEINRICH. Mr. President, I thank my colleagues Senator Tom Udall and Senator Richard Blumenthal for joining me to visit the southwest border last week. We went to the border to seek answers and to demand accountability for the very real human impacts of President Trump's cruel and unnecessary policy of separating children from their parents.
The permanent trauma these policies are inflicting on parents and their innocent children, many of whom are refugees who are fleeing violence and seeking asylum, is inhumane and horrific. Taking thousands of children--some as young as infants and toddlers--away from their parents and detaining them as a form of punishment or deterrence is ineffective and morally indefensible.
After all, under the rule of law, refugees who flee violence have a right to request asylum. As of now, only about 500 children of the over 2,000 children in custody have been reunited with their families since President Trump signed an Executive order last Wednesday that ended his family separation policy. There is still no clear plan from the White House that ensures all children will be reunited with their families. This is simply unacceptable.
This crisis was born from malice, and, frankly, it has been inflamed by incompetence. As an American and as a father, I will not just sit by. What we saw last Friday along the border, which has been ground zero for President Trump's so-called zero tolerance policies, has had a profound impact on me.
We learned that there are over 250 teenagers who are being housed in a temporary tent city detention facility in Tornillo, TX. We met with families who are being held at a Border Patrol station in El Paso who told us about their difficult journeys and the violence they experienced in their home countries that they are desperately trying to escape. Let me share the story of just one of these families who was in the Border Patrol's custody.
I met a father who is in his midtwenties who came here with his, roughly, 2-year-old daughter, named Gabriella. He told us they fled here, seeking asylum, because his home country of Honduras was violent and unstable, and he wanted a better future for his daughter.
If he had arrived before President Trump's Executive order last week, just a few days earlier, his little girl would have been, literally, torn from his arms. I can't tell you whether Gabriella and her father will be granted asylum. I suspect that will be decided by an immigration judge, but at least we know he will be able to keep his daughter by his side through this difficult process. It is unforgiveable that thousands of families facing similar circumstances are still separated, with no knowledge of where their children are, with no knowledge of if or when they will be reunited--all because of the Trump administration.
During our visit we also learned troubling details about the process facing asylum seekers who are attempting to enter our Nation legally at our ports of entry. At the Paseo del Norte Port of Entry in El Paso, we learned firsthand how the Trump administration's actions are creating unnecessary delays on asylum claims for those fleeing violence and persecution. What is more, the mixed messages and outright lies coming from the White House and administration officials are creating real confusion and chaos on the ground for those actually responsible for carrying out the President's policies. There is not enough transparency from the White House or from Federal agencies. There is not enough oversight from this administration.
We absolutely need to know what is going on. That is why we are calling for immediate hearings on the Trump administration's inhumane border policies and accountability and oversight of those responsible for carrying those policies out. Anything short of accounting for every single child affected by this policy is unacceptable and unconscionable. We must hold the White House accountable for adhering to our laws, to American values, and for executing a clear plan to right these wrongs.
It is important for us to recognize that the intentionally cruel separation of families that we have witnessed in recent weeks and months is only one piece of a larger systemic campaign by this administration to dehumanize our immigrant communities. These inhumane enforcement policies follow President Trump's discriminatory Muslim travel ban. They follow his refusal to offer refugee status to those from war-torn countries, such as Syria. They follow his cancellation of legal status for immigrants who escaped natural disasters and unthinkable violence in Haiti, Honduras, and El Salvador. They follow his unjust ending of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or the DACA Program, and his repeated efforts to derail any efforts in Congress to reach a bipartisan consensus on responsible immigration policies that would make smart investments in security at our borders, that would keep our communities safe, and that would recognize the dignity and vibrancy of those border communities.
Despite President Trump's continued determination to sabotage any good-faith efforts, I continue to believe that our Nation desperately needs Congress to pass comprehensive immigration legislation. That includes a visa system that meets the needs of our economy, a fair path to earn citizenship for the estimated 11 million people in our country who are undocumented, and a plan that ensures security at our Nation's borders. Rather than stirring up division and targeting law-abiding immigrants who are working hard to support their families and pay taxes, we should focus our enforcement activities and resources on violent criminals. We must also act with a sense of urgency to find a responsible way forward for the hundreds of thousands of Dreamers who are just as much a part of our communities as any one of us. They are Americans in every way except on paper. I will not give up on them.
None of President Trump's callous actions on immigration represent the values of the America that I know and love--the America that welcomed my father and his family as they emigrated here from Germany in the 1930s. When I think about immigration, I always wonder how different my life would be if America had turned my family away, had turned my father away, or had broken his family apart.
Sadly, that is not an abstraction. It is not an abstract question for thousands of families still desperately hoping to be reunited now. Just like my father's family, these families are mothers, fathers, and children who are overwhelmingly people seeking to come to America because of the promise that our Nation represents. I take heart in the groundswell of decency that we have witnessed from thousands of Americans who have made their voices heard.
After we visited the border on Friday, Senator Udall and I joined hundreds of New Mexicans for a community event in Las Cruces. I want to share an image of a little girl who I saw at the event.
As you can see on this graphic, her sign reads: ``I love my family and I need them every day.'' That is really what this is all about. I am sure that the innocent children who have been separated from their parents and placed in detention facilities feel exactly the same way.
At the root of this often difficult debate, I believe we need to reaffirm the humanity of these children and their parents. We cannot stop fighting for compassionate and responsible immigration policies that respect the dignity of these families. We must not turn our backs on the ideals and fundamental values that made the United States both the most powerful Nation on Earth and a beacon of moral leadership. We must continue to make our voices heard and demand reunification for all of these children with their families.
I want to assure New Mexicans and all Americans that I stand with you in saying that this is not what we stand for. I will not rest until our country is once again seen as the moral leader of the free world.
Thank you, Mr. President.
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