Washington (CNN) Rep. Madeleine Dean became emotional while describing an interaction she had Monday with detained migrant children, saying a group of children "in a cage behind glass" passed a note to her under a door asking, "How can we help you?"

A number of Democratic lawmakers visited two border detention centers in Texas in the days after Congress passed a $4.6 billion bill to send emergency funding to the border last week. Dean appeared on CNN's "The Lead" on Tuesday and told host Jake Tapper of her experience visiting a migrant detention center in Clint, Texas.

"We tried to shout in and someone shouted in to them we were members of Congress there hoping to help them, hoping to learn, as John Lewis says, but also hoping to help them, and when I actually -- I scribbled this note on a piece of paper and held it up to the glass and the guard corrected me. The note simply says, 'We heart you, we love you' and the children smiled," the Pennsylvania Democrat said.

She continued: "You know what they did? They passed a note under the floor -- under the door. And we got in trouble. The guard worried we were sending something. The children sent us a note out. And the note said, 'How can we help you?' The children wanted to help us."

"That is inhumanity. Children in a cage behind glass unable to speak to leaders of Congress," Dean added.