00:00Your opening statement referenced the importance of protecting children, and I'm glad to hear
00:05your commitment to that. I want to focus on one of President Trump's mass deportation policies
00:11that the experts say harms children. Child detention. In this administration, under your
00:18watch, ICE has booked nearly 4,000 children. And 1,000 of them have been held longer than the
00:28court-ordered 20-day limit. Recently, ProPublica obtained handwritten letters and drawings from
00:34children detained by ICE. These are letters from children describing what it feels like and what
00:39it does to them when the government locks them up. This is Ariana. She's 14 years old, detained for
00:4945 days. Since I got to this center, all I feel is sadness and mostly depression.
00:55This is Mia, 7 years old. I don't want to be in this place. I want to go to my school.
01:03This is Scarlett, 17 years old. I feel very bored and overwhelmed because I am locked up.
01:13This is Gabby, 14 years old. I feel so much sadness and depression of not being able to leave.
01:23This is Maria, 9 years old. Me in Dilley. I'm not happy. Please get me out of here.
01:34This is a 12-year-old going to the doctor. And the only thing they tell me is drink more water.
01:44The water here is what makes people sick. And this one got me, Mr. Lyons, because this is a five-year-old.
01:51Luis Annie. My son's five. He can't write many words.
01:56But he can communicate through drawings like this. This is a picture of Luis Annie's family.
02:01And you might be able to see that none of the faces are smiling.
02:09Child detention is not required by law. You know that.
02:13It's not the only option available.
02:15And it's not effective.
02:17We know that community-based alternatives can ensure compliance with proceedings without traumatizing these children.
02:28Yet you continue to detain and hold children for weeks or months,
02:34depriving them of school, stability, leaving them afraid, sick, and confused.
02:42And one of the key reasons for your mass detention, including the detention of Liam and his father,
02:50is to pressure people to give up their legal opportunities and pathways to remaining in the United States.
02:58Liam's father was following the rules, following the legal process with a valid claim.
03:03Let me be clear. No child, not Liam Ramos, not Gabby, or any of these children should be used as pawns
03:12in Stephen Miller's sick and twisted Great Replacement agenda.
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