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Pelosi Remarks at Press Event Introducing Keep Families Together Act

June 20, 2018

Contact: Ashley Etienne/Henry Connelly, 202-226-7616

Washington, D.C. – House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi joined her fellow House Democrats for a press event to call for passage of the Keep Families Together Act, legislation to end the Trump Administration's cruel policy of separating families at the border. This bill already has more than 190 House Democratic cosponsors and is the House companion to the legislation introduced by Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) earlier this month. Below are the Leader's remarks:

Leader Pelosi. Let us thank [Congressman] Jerry Nadler for his leadership and his beautiful statement. Thank you, Jerry. Thank you very much Jerry Nadler for calling us together to support your legislation to keep families together.

Over the weekend, a number of Members, who are gathered on these steps, visited detention centers both in New Jersey and Texas and California and saw first-hand the injustice and inhumanity of it all. And here we are bringing our concerns to the steps of the Capitol once again, once again, to say to the President of the United States, ‘How low can you go? What is the measure of your character, your compassion and your commitment to a better America that you would advocate for a policy that rips children from their parents, their mothers or their fathers?'

To use a biblical justification to do it goes even beyond – just when we thought we had seen it all from you [President Trump]. The fact is – the bible – in the words of Jesus, himself, he said, when people brought little children to Jesus to pray for them and place his hands on them, Jesus said, ‘let the little children come to me and do not hinder them because the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these' and then he placed his hands on them.

I go to this prayerful place because this challenge is a challenge to the conscience of our country, to all of us who serve our country, to those of us who take an oath of office to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States have not only a policy debate to engage in but a values debate to win.

And so, in order to do that, it is important for people to know the truth. When the President said that these actions are not his doing, he is not telling the truth. The truth is his Administration instituted the zero tolerance policy which is, again, a disgrace to a country, a stain on our history and it hurts these little children and their families.

When the Administration says, and they boldly do, ‘This is the right thing to do because these parents did the wrong thing by bringing these children across the desert, across Mexico into the United States, they are unfit parents,' the Administration says, ‘We know better. We want to take the children from them and put them in foster care or whatever.' That was the expression, ‘or whatever.' Or whatever?

Do they not know the value of parenting? Does the president think of children as accessories and not central to family sanctity in our country? It is really difficult to understand even in this Administration how they could go so far, place the blame elsewhere, not even be apologetic about it. ‘We know how to take care of these children.' Really? That's wrong, that's not right, it's wrong and anybody who advocates that is doing the wrong thing, including the President of the United States.

Pope Francis this morning said, ‘We encounter Jesus in those who are poor, rejected, and refugees. Do not let fear get in the way of our welcoming our neighbor in need.'

This isn't even necessarily about that, this is about parents and their children. Parents and their children, and if the President doesn't understand that, then we know the scope of the challenge we have to face as we debate the values in our country as we go forward.

I am very proud of Mr. Nadler's legislation. I am very proud of the number of Members who have tended to this issue, every day and now on the steps of the Capitol and now, on their behalf, I am pleased to welcome a guest, Wendy Young, the executive director of Kids in Needs of Defense. KIND. KIND. Thank you Wendy.

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