What Has America Become?

Floor Speech

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Mr. McNERNEY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding. He is a neighbor and a friend and a colleague, and I appreciate his passion tonight, and I think I am going to share that a little bit.

Mr. Speaker, I normally focus on policy. I came here to try to get things done for the people who sent me here to Washington.

You know, I don't bark every time this President sends out an outrageous tweet or makes a ridiculous statement. But when something happens that is absolutely despicable, I am morally obligated to call the President out and hold him publicly accountable for his actions.

Ordering young children to be separated from their parents in order to send a message and then blaming Democrats for the situation, this rises to the level of complete immoral behavior.

Desperate families come to this country fleeing for their very lives. Our history has been to give them shelter.

My wife's grandfather came from Mexico as a political refugee when he and his family were marked for death. America gave him refuge and he was able to bring his two-year-old daughter, my mother-in-law, to safety.

I built a life and raised a family here. Now I have children and grandchildren of my own. What would it be like to have them torn from my arms if I tried to provide them safety?

The American Conference of Catholic Bishops is very clear. It is immoral, and it is wrong. There is no greater moral obligation that we have than to care for the children of this world. Clearly, ripping children from the arms of their parents is completely unacceptable.

This President is too much of a coward to take responsibility for his actions. The President has power to stop this abhorrent policy right now. We, in Congress, will fight to keep families together.

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