Frustration over the U.S. border policy of separating families continues to rise – and has now spilled over into the House of Representatives.
Congressman Ted Lieu (D) of California took the floor Friday to speak out against the “zero-tolerance” policy that sees children taken from their parents who are being prosecuted for crossing the border illegally.
The children are then placed into detention facilities across the U.S. More than 2,300 children have been taken since the Trump administration instituted the policy earlier this year.
U.S. President Donald Trump has since signed an executive order that would keep newly migrant families detained together for as long as their criminal proceeding takes, but many people say it doesn’t go far enough as it doesn’t detail a plan for children who are currently detained.
“If the Statue of Liberty could cry, she’d be crying today,” Lieu said in the House of Representatives.
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He also accused Trump and Neilsen, who have become the face of the policy after defending it in recent days, of “basically kidnapping” the children.
“Imagine being a child, when you were young, when your parents were likely the most important people in your life, imagine being ripped away from your mother and father, and not knowing if you’re ever going to see them again. And being placed in a detention facility with strangers,” Lieu continued.
“Imagine the horror and fear you will see doing that.”
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As he went on asking, “What must that sound like?” The cries of children started to be heard from an audio recording. Pleas for “Mami” and “Papi” could be heard between the sobs.
The recording – which features 10 Central American children who were recently separated from their parents – was leaked to ProPublica last week.
The audio plays for about 40 seconds before Karen Handel, a Georgian congresswoman who was presiding over the House at the time, asked him to stop.
She cited “rule 17 prohibits the use of an electronic device to make sounds in the chamber” as she slammed down her gavel.
Lieu defended his actions, saying: “There’s no rule that says I can’t play sounds.”
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“Why are you trying to prevent the American people from listening to what it sounds like at a detention facility?” he went on.
Rule 17 of the House of Representatives is called “Decorum and Debate.” In the section for exhibits presented to the House, it says “When the use of an exhibit in debate is objected to by a Member, Delegate, or Resident Commissioner, the Chair, in the discretion of the Chair, may submit the question of its use to the House without debate.”
There is no reference to using an electronic device to produce sounds in the rules of the House.
Handel threatened to use the Sergeant-at-Arms to stop the proceedings, which is when Lieu yielded.
But he later defended his actions on Twitter, cursing the rules of decorum.
“I can’t play the @ProPublica audio of their cries for help because of ‘decorum’? F*ck decorum,” Lieu wrote.
“@realDonaldTrump engaged in the functional equivalent of kidnapping. The American people need to hear this.”
The speech from Lieu came just before Trump pushed back against the furor of public opinion over the border policy. Saying “you hear the other side, you never hear this side,” he introduced families whose loved ones were killed by people who entered the country illegally.
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