Sen. Jeff Merkley (D.-Ore.)

Speaking from the Senate floor on Tuesday, Sen. Jeff Merkley (D.-Ore.) told President Donald Trump that he has “a dark and evil heart.”

“You, Mr. President, have created a crisis, a humanitarian crisis,” Merkley said.

“The arrivals on the border are not the crisis; it is your hardened heart, your dark and evil heart, your war on children; the deliberate strategy of inflicting trauma on children in order to send a message of deterrence, a political message of deterrence,” he said.

Merkley also said Trump had created “internment camps” for children.

“There is no crisis there, only the humanitarian crisis, Mr. Trump, that you are creating with your war on children--your war on migrant children--shoving them back into Mexico to put them at the mercy of the Mexican gangs,” said Merkley, “proceeding to let them into the United States and then ripping them out of the arms of their parents while you lock up their parents; deciding you are going to lock up the children with their parents behind barbed wire and internment camps; establishing a national system of child prisons that, last month, held 15,000 children, which is up from 7,000 in June; failing to provide medical evaluations for these children when they cross the border.”

Here is an excerpt from Merkley’s speech on the Senate floor:

“There is no crisis there, only the humanitarian crisis, Mr. Trump, that you are creating with your war on children--your war on migrant children--shoving them back into Mexico to put them at the mercy of the Mexican gangs; proceeding to let them into the United States and then ripping them out of the arms of their parents while you lock up their parents; deciding you are going to lock up the children with their parents behind barbed wire and internment camps; establishing a national system of child prisons that, last month, held 15,000 children, which is up from 7,000 in June; failing to provide medical evaluations for these children when they cross the border. Two have died--one after 6 days in the care of the American border guard.