Religion

Mr. Speaker, I come to this floor prayerfully. It is really very sad. It was interesting to me--and I spoke out about this--that on Sunday in Catholic Masses, and I don't know beyond that, that the gospel of the day was the gospel of the Good Samaritan. A person asked Jesus, “What do I have to do to enter the kingdom of Heaven?''

And Christ replied, “Love thy neighbor as thyself. Show mercy.”

That very same day he went on to talk and then he said, “Well, how do I do this?''

And Jesus gave him the example of the Good Samaritan. Everyone is familiar with how a stranger helped another stranger, a foreigner helped another foreigner, the Good Samaritan. Love thy neighbor as thyself, show mercy.

On that very same day, coincidentally, ironically, sadly, whatever adverb you want to use, the President was instituting raids into the homes of families.

I went to Spanish mass this weekend and saw the dignity of those families, the beauty of the children, and the fear that the President had struck in their hearts, as we were listening to the Gospel of the Good Samaritan to show mercy and love thy neighbor as thyself. That very same day, unfortunately, there were those who were not informed by that Gospel.

So here we are later in that day, it was stunning to hear the words that were used, go home, to some of our colleagues, the same words that were used to so many people in our country whether because they weren't born here or because they didn't look like some others here: Go home.

As annoyed and as insulted as we all should be about the President saying that about our colleagues, it is also not showing mercy for him to say that about so many people in our country, as he wants to split up families.

So, Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Malinowski and Mr. Raskin for the opportunity to speak to the statements that the President made later in the day of the Gospel of the Good Samaritan: Mr. Malinowski, who was born abroad; Mr. Raskin for his firm leadership in advancing this important resolution.

The House hopefully has come together standing as one to denounce the White House's xenophobic attacks on our Members, on our people, and to defend the values of America.

And what is America? America is many things: the land of a great Constitution, which is under threat; a beautiful land that God has given us, which is being degraded; values that we share that are being undermined. But America is also a Nation largely, but not totally, largely of immigrants.