Letter to John Boehner, Speaker of the House - Regarding Solutions to the Crisis at the Southern Border

Letter

Dear Speaker Boehner,

The humanitarian crisis unfolding across our nation's southern border demands Congress come together and find thoughtful, compassionate and bipartisan solutions.

The thousands of unaccompanied children crossing our borders to escape violence deserve to be treated humanely and with dignity -- not as an opportunity for partisan point-scoring. As Most Reverend Mark Seitz, Bishop of the Diocese of El Paso noted in testimony to the House Judiciary Committee yesterday, "…the Catholic Church's work in assisting unaccompanied migrant children stems from the belief that every person has a unique and sacred identity. This dignity is not bestowed by governments or by laws or based upon their wealth or where they happen to be born. It inheres within the human being."

As the Homeland Security Committee prepares for field hearings on the border, with the participation of Republican Members of the unaccompanied children task force you formed, I would urge you to take full advantage of the knowledge and experience of Members from the Border Caucus. These Members, all of whom represent border communities, confront the consequences of the humanitarian crisis on a daily basis. Going forward, I hope you will do your best to make any fact-finding process as inclusive and bipartisan as possible.

The Border Caucus has contributed to the process leading up to bipartisan border security legislation that unanimously passed out of the Homeland Security Committee. That legislation is a part of H.R. 15, the comprehensive immigration reform legislation that still awaits a vote in the House and that is supported by 200 bipartisan Members of the House.

The surge of unaccompanied children requires thoughtful action and a bipartisan approach. We must ensure that both the Homeland Security Act of 2002, sponsored by Rep. Richard Armey of Texas and signed into law by President George W. Bush, and the bipartisan William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008, which passed the House and Senate unanimously and was also signed into law by President Bush, are fully enforced, so that due process is provided to unaccompanied children and the safety and well-being of unaccompanied children is protected. We must also work to address the root causes of the problem.

For the sake of our national security, for the sake of vulnerable children, I urge you to proceed with a bipartisan process that produces meaningful solutions. I hope you will treat this matter with the seriousness and the consideration it deserves.

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