Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., played audio of immigrant children crying in a detention facility on the House floor Friday in an apparent violation of chamber rules.
“If the Statue of Liberty could cry, she would be crying today,” Lieu said as he stood next to an image of children covered in sleeping bags and mylar blankets housed in a detention facility.
Lieu asked his colleagues to imagine what it would be like being “ripped away from your mother and father” and “what must that sound like.” Then audio of Central American children crying for their parents after being separated from them at the U.S.-Mexico border began to play in the chamber through a recording he brought with him.
.@RepTedLieu plays @ProPublica audio from detention center on House floor: “The American people need to hear this…”
“The sergeant of arms will enforce the rules of decorum.” pic.twitter.com/kFP8L5ysKk
— CSPAN (@cspan) June 22, 2018
Rep. Karen Handel, R-Ga., who was presiding over the floor, told Lieu to “suspend” because he was “in breach of quorum.”
A visibly irritated Handel cited Rule 17 which “prohibits the use of electronic device to made sounds in the chamber.”
Lieu ignored Handel and said the rule doesn’t prohibit him from playing sounds from inside a detention center.
“Why do you not let the American people hear what they are saying?” Lieu asked. “Why are we hiding this from the American people?”
“We have 2,300 babies and kids in detention facilities who were ripped away from their parents. I think the American people need to hear this,” he continued.
After four minutes of the audio blasting throughout the House, Handel told Lieu that the sergeant-at-arms would enforce the rules, meaning they’d physically remove him if necessary. Lieu then stopped the recording and yielded back the rest of his time.
Democrats have hammered their Republican colleagues for President Trump’s zero tolerance policy at the border which resulted in thousands of children being separated from their parents. The administration has said it will not take special action to reunite the more than 2,000 children currently separated from their families. After growing public outcry, Trump signed an executive order directing officials to stop separating children from their parents but instead detain families together as the adults are prosecuted for illegally crossing the border.
