Friday on the House floor during a debate on a emergency bill to address the border crisis, Rep José Serrano (D-NY) said “Just because a border separates us, that doesn’t stop them from being our children.”

The Democrat from New York said, “At the end of the day the question may not be who are the children at the border and why are they here, the question may be who are we as a nation and why we are here as a congress.”

“Our reputation has been never to turn people away,” he continued. “Our reputation should never be to turn children away to what could be a certain death or very difficult situation. This is not a crises. This is a situation that we have had before that we have known how to deal with. This is a moment for our country to show who we are. The world is looking. These are children. It’s not their fault that they are here. There are many conditions that brought them here. How we act will be our fault. If we don’t act properly, how we act will be our legacy. This is not who we are as a country. We are much better than that.”

He added, “I repeat. and we have to understand that these are children, these are our children. Just because a border separates us that doesn’t stop them from being our children. Let’s turn down and reject all of this nonsense that we are doing and let’s try to help them and help them in the proper way.”

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