Post by bot on Jun 19, 2015 22:10:24 GMT -5
Hoyer Remarks at Press Conference Announcing House Democrats' Visit to Family Detention Centers in Texas
WASHINGTON, DC – House Democratic Whip Steny H. Hoyer (MD) delivered the following remarks today at a press conference with House Democrats to announce their plans to visit two private family detention facilities in Texas next week:
“I want to thank [Rep.] Gutiérrez and those with whom I’m standing here, all of whom have worked very, very hard to ensure that America has a rational and comprehensive immigration policy.
“In May, I joined 135 other House Democrats in sending a letter to Jeh Johnson, the Secretary of Homeland Security, raising concerns for the unacceptable conditions in family detention centers housing those seeking asylum from Central America.
“I spent a lot of time in the late 1980’s and 1990’s behind the Iron Curtain and in many other countries talking about conditions, humane conditions for the treatment of people, for the reunification of families, for the allowing people to immigrate, to be reunited with their father or their mother or their husband or their wife.
“Detaining children puts them at risk of medical and developmental problems in the short-term and later in life. We cannot – we must not – ignore these reports that young people are being held in prison-like conditions – these are not criminals – while their parents await legal proceedings. Many of those being detained arrived after having fled from unspeakable hardships, of which [Rep.] Gutiérrez just spoke – gang violence, hunger, political oppression, extreme poverty, and, yes, victims of criminal assaults.
“Our immigration policies ought to be based on our highest values, that America is, and must continue to be, a beacon of liberty and opportunity for the world. People in these detention centers are, for the most part, ‘the tired, the poor, the huddled masses yearning to breathe free,’ of which Emma Lazarus spoke and which is emblazoned on our Statue of Liberty.
“I want to thank Representative Gutiérrez, Representative Lofgren, who has worked so hard and so effectively, [Rep.] Lucille Roybal-Allard, and all the others who have been involved in this effort. I continue to call on our Republican friends to work with Democrats to pass comprehensive immigration reform legislation to fix a broken system.
“I am looking forward to being with my colleagues here in San Antonio at these centers to see firsthand whether America is living out its values and treating children and others as we would want our own children [to be treated]. As the father to three daughters, as the grandfather of three, and as the great-grandfather of three great-grandchildren, I am very concerned of how we as a country treat the children and grandchildren of others. America needs to treat them as well as we would want our own children treated. I thank you.”