U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) took to the Senate floor today to call on President Trump to immediately end his administration’s policy of separating children from their parents at the border.
“There are 174 kids being held in my state of Florida who have been separated from their families.” Nelson said citing figures his office received from the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services. “Children that have been ripped apart from their moms and dads when, in fact, it has always been an American value to keep families together.” “Despite all the finger pointing and the deflection, President Trump and his administration knows that this is their policy,” Nelson said. ”There’s nothing in the law that requires them to tear parents away from their children. There’s nothing in the law that requires the administration to rip an infant from a parent’s arms. The decision to enact this quite horrendous and shameful policy was a decision by this administration and this administration alone.”
Nelson’s remarks come one day after he was denied entry to a federally-funded facility in Homestead, Fla. that’s housing hundreds of migrant children. “The question is why do they not want the senator from Florida to get into this detention facility where there are children that have been separated from their parents?” Nelson said. ”They don’t want me to see it because they don’t want us to know what is going on in there.”
Nelson, who has been an outspoken opponent of the administration’s policy to separate children from their parents, sent a letter to President Trump earlier this month urging his administration to immediately stop its policy of separating families at the border. He and others have also filed legislation in the Senate to prohibit the U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security from continuing its blanket policy of separating children from their parents at the border.
“The power to end this shameful chapter in our nation’s history lies with the president and his pen,” Nelson said on the Senate floor today. “He can sign an executive order today just as easily as he can sign a law that we pass here in Congress. Either way, it’s up to him. He doesn’t need Congress to act. He, and he alone, is allowing this shameful practice to continue. And he, and he alone, can stop it right now.”
Here’s a rush transcript of his speech:
U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson
Remarks on the Senate floor
June 20, 2018
Sen. Nelson: Madam President, I have just returned from South Florida where I went to a detention facility in Homestead, Florida. There are a thousand children in this detention facility. 94 of the 1,000 are children that have been separated from their families.
Despite being the senior senator of Florida, despite having the oversight responsibility of the department of H.H.S., despite the fact that in that oversight capacity we have the funding responsibility for the department of H.H.S. And one of its components, the Office of Refugee Resettlement of which these children separated from their families are handled by that office, despite all of that, the Deputy Secretary of the Department of H.H.S. refused to allow me to enter this facility and said that it was his policy, it was the department’s policy that you have to fill out a form, which we had, but you have to wait two weeks before they would allow me to enter the facility.
Of which the question is: why do they not want the senator from Florida to get into this detention facility where there are children that have been separated from their parents?
And it must be that not only is this department policy, this is being directed from the president in the White House, and they don’t want me to see it because they don’t want us to know what is going on in there. I have subsequently found out that in addition to those 94 children, there are [a total of] 174 children being held in my state of Florida that have been separated from their families, and this is the current debate.
Children that have been ripped apart from their moms and dads when, in fact, it has always been an American value to keep families together even when you are adjudicating the lawful or unlawful status of the parents. You always keep those children together on an immigration question, and yet President Trump has now altered that policy. And despite all the finger pointing and the deflection, President Trump and his administration knows that this is their policy. He doubled down on it last night but there’s nothing in the law that requires them to tear parents away from their children. There’s nothing in the law that requires the administration to rip an infant from a parent’s arms. Some young enough still to be nursing.
And the decision to enact this quite horrendous and shameful policy was a decision by this administration and this administration alone. And that’s why this senator went to Miami yesterday, because I wanted to see for myself. I wanted to see is the facility clean? Are the children sleeping in beds or are they sleeping on the floor? Are they having adequate care?
And if they were, I could report that that was a good news story, but I also wanted to be able to report that was a good news story, but I also wanted to be able to talk to the young children, the ones who had been separated. I had already gotten word from Senator Van Hollen who had been in Texas on Saturday and met a mom there that said her child had been separated from her and that she was — that child was in a detention facility in Florida. I wanted to see that child.
I am very proud of all of our colleagues who have come together to support legislation to keep these families together. 49 of us on this side of that aisle have signed on as cosponsors, all of us on this side of the aisle, and the policy of this legislation is simply don’t separate families in this question of immigration. And it would prohibit the separation of those families. Now, that’s been the policy. All the president would have to do is to say it.
But it looks like he taking the position that he has, maybe then the only recourse is for us to pass this law. I’m proud of our colleagues on that side of the aisle who have rightfully stood up and publicly condemned this practice, because every American knows that taking children from their parents is just not right.
If a family is legitimately fleeing violence, repression, and conditions that most of us cannot imagine, they have a right under American law to present themselves at the border and ask for asylum. Past administrations of both parties have recognized this, which is why they acted with compassion and refused to do what the Trump administration is doing now. And it’s certainly time that we return to our true American value of keeping families together. And because of the passage of a statute is a long shot, it’s really not up to us. It’s up to the president. He could say it and it would be done. No matter what we do here in this chamber, the power to end this shameful chapter in our nation’s history lies with the president and his pen.
He can sign an executive order today just as easily as he can sign a law that we pass here in Congress. Either way, it’s up to him.
He doesn’t need Congress to act. He and he alone is allowing this shameful practice to continue, and he alone can stop it right now.
Madam President, I yield the floor.