Rep. Joe Crowley suggested his belief that the families who have been separated at the border for illegally entering the country should be compensated for the pain they experienced while speaking on Capitol Hill on Wednesday.

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“The damage that has been done to these children will be lifelong, to the families units as well and in fact, I suggest they need to be compensated for what this administration did to them,” Crowley stated.

“To have these children ripped apart and separated is one of the most reprehensible things I’ve witnessed in my twenty years of service here in the House of Representatives,” he continued.

The New York Congressman is referencing President Trump’s “zero-tolerance” policy that essentially ended “catch and release.” Instead, under Trump’s policy, people who were apprehended trying to come into the country illegally were separated and held until their hearings, whereas under previous administrations, those who were caught trying to illegally cross the border were released and expected to show up to their court date.

Crowley, who has been in the House for nearly twenty years, lost his primary to the up-and-coming young New York Democratic Socialist, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.