I think parents fleeing gangs and state sponsored violence come here only to be torn apart from their children and when children purposely are separated from moms by our government it's a women's issue when our country detain women who are fleeing brutal domestic violence at the courthouse door it's a women's issue that's why we're here today to demand immigration and refugee policies that protect and respect the rights and safety of Women and children we are delivering a letter today signed by dozens of women's organizations representing tens of millions of women that urges congressional leaders to engage in aggressive oversight of the trump administration's unfair and destructive treatment of immigrants and asylum seeks seekers and to enact legislation that affirms the dignity of immigrant women and children We want the administration to stop separating families and the detention of pregnant women and maintain the right of women seeking to escape domestic violence to be granted asylum anything else would be heartless appalling destructive and unacceptable We thank our wonderful champions in Congress and our fellow women's groups for their support and for joining us and demanding action thank you And that's what I have the pleasure of introducing my senator from California senator harris thank you for So this is about um a number of issues that include really um the values that we have as Americans in terms of the responsibility and the role of government and um the role we should be playing on an issue like this and let's be very clear government should be in the business of keeping families together not tearing families apart but that's not what we're seeing in terms of the parent priorities of this administration on this Administration is clearly um decided that they're going to attack women children and their families um and you can look at several policies that that that make this clear one you look at the fact that it is been widely reported that the Department of homeland security has separated 700 children from their parents at the border since October of 20 17 it's been reported that over 100 of those children were under four years old four years old Not even at an age where they can attend kindergarten separated from their families you can look at the fact that this administration has changed the policies around what should happen with pregnant women in terms of detention it used to be the policy that there was a presumption that pregnant women should not be detained and should be put in less restrictive situations but clearly that is no longer a thought that this administration has about what should be done in terms of the needs of pregnant women when the administration changed the policy in a way that under Will result in more pregnant women being detained the O I G and the gao have reported that pregnant women are also receiving insufficient medical care and attention in these detention facilities they have outlined situations where pregnant women are experiencing dehydration and even miscarriages let's look at another policy there are reports that the Department of homeland security is looking at decreasing the standard of care for children in detention facilities and standards of care that was there that relate to the types of meals that children must eat in order to be healthy And the kind of recreation that they should have in order again to be healthy and then the fourth piece that makes it very clear in terms of the policies of this administration and priorities around children are the fact that it rescinded dhaka and we talked about that extensively and who these young people are and how they should be treated in terms of keeping a promise to them that this administration has failed to do there is also a component of this that must recognize that these policies are not without consequences not only in terms of families being currently separated not only in terms of detention facilities right now and where are these families will be held in House it's also about And what will be potentially lifelong impact in terms of trauma in fact the American medical Association and the academy of pediatrics the American academy of pediatrics have weighed in on this topic and what they have said is that family separation causes irreparable harm it disrupts a child's brain architecture and affects long and short term health so there are potentially lifelong consequences to these children for the policies of This administration that clearly is not about caring about children and the least among us and I'm proud therefore to be um joined with representative Paul and we are together uh sponsoring legislation that is named the detention oversight not expansion act the dunn act uh you know it will do three things one there will be a moratorium on the expansion of detention facilities come let her come yes there will be a moratorium on the expansion or construction of new facilities to we will increase over Of ice facilities by the office of the inspector general and three the reduction of detention beds by 50 percent and we will do that by creating more successful and less costly alternatives to detention so I'm very proud to work with congresswoman dialogue on this and with all of my other colleagues on this important issue and again this is about our children and families and whether we're going to be a compassionate government or a cool government and We're better than this I wish the administration understood back thank you Thank you next we will hear from senator cortez mast O senator thank you Thank you first of all let me just say thank you to all of you for being here thank you to my colleague senator harris um congressman Dr helen congressman lujan grisham and everyone that's here today um it is an honor to work alongside all of you for the fight for immigrant rights um we are here today to send a clear message to the trump administration separating parents from their kids is unacceptable it is in humane and it is not where and who we are as Americans since he launched Presidential campaign donald trump has been attacking immigrant families and he brought his anti immigrant rhetoric and hate with him to the White House when donald trump attacks immigrants he attacks all of us he attacks nevada ns one in five nevada is is an immigrant my grandfather my great grandfather there immigrants I will not stand by while this administration continues to attack families like mine donald trump Rescinded doctor and Tv is programs that protect hard working immigrants he is deported thousands of immigrants who have lived here for decades immigrants with serious health problems immigrants with American citizen children and immigrants with no criminal records have been forced out of their homes and now as part of attorney general sessions new zero tolerance policy the trump administration is preparing to separate families from seek protection at our border he is separating Kids from their parents there is no plan in place for reunification parents have no way to contact their kids no way to know where they are or if they are ok children can't be detained for months on end from October through April more than 700 children have been separated from their families and what my colleague pamela harris has said the American academy of pediatrics vehemently opposes separating our families because we know kids Separated from their families are more likely to develop post traumatic stress divorce disorder anxiety and behavioral problem trump and his aides have suggested that separating families as a way to deter people from coming across our borders that is just sick it is wrong and it is against everything we believe in as Americans most of the families they're separating are fleeing extreme gang violence in Central America they come here because they have no Choice their only options are to leave everything behind in their home land and start a new life or to stay in a country where there's children's lives their children's lives are threatened on a daily basis a few months ago I had the opportunity to meet a woman who works right here in our Senate cafeteria and she made the decision to flee Honduras after she and her son saw her husband killed before their very eyes these are People were talking about families women We for their lives and it is our American values it is who we are as Americans to help our neighbors that's how I was taught that's how we were all taught and we shouldn't let this administration change our American values so we're fighting today for our families for families who are seeking refuge for their lives and I appreciate all of you appreciate all of you being here today in the fight to help us so thank you Thank you and next we'll hear from representative lujan grisham thank you Ok well yeah I don't know whether I should just move these or if someone's gonna have to give me a boost up um but I've got to leave them and just get on my tippy toes and boss Carlos who needs a box the next time I do this I am so proud to be here today with moms rising and my incredible colleagues because this is the most Humanizing them because this behavior is not White Their mothers or their fathers that is not behavior that we condone in this society in any contest and yet we are allowing it to occur at the border so what you're seeing today is outrage and there we're gonna fight by putting them on notice looking for legislative actions that will provide support and redress and we need you to get this message out that this is not who we are does not reflect our values and for me in particular I come from a state that has significant Economic challenges and as a result we are the worst in the nation for child wellbeing what we know in that context that the risk for new Mexico families probably high because these children experience Well this is doing to these children who are coming here with their families to seek asylum we are we are enacting another hama after those harrowing journeys to come to this country and it is an outrage and I look at the rear of these precious children who are here today and I have a nearly three year old granddaughter And I can't eve The sense that That child and separate that child from her mother makes me so incredibly angry that it is very difficult to maintain professional composure because it is the cruelest ineffective policy that we could ever that we could ever in act and so this group today and my colleagues have been much more articulate that I because they would be for me and I don't like one of them with statistics that I don't wanna repeat da ca t ps every single thing from the rhetoric on the campaign trail to every single immigration effort Has all been designed to put fear in our communities to lead by anger and hostility and to punish those among us who should be least punished so thank you very much for standing with us today thank you to these incredible women and incredible leaders in Congress and thanks to the congressional Hispanic caucus and the caucus who are continuing to lead by example and fight against these draconian inhumane policies let's give these families what they expected when they got here protection of conscience Asylum and making sure that they have the opportunity to present those cases and tweeting them in a humane productive fair compassionate way that a country built of immigrants would do thank you very much Next we'll hear from representative jaya Paul from Washington state yeah Thank you so much um I'm pamela jaya Paul proud to represent the seventh congressional district in the state of Washington very proud to be an immigrant mom myself one of only about a dozen members of Congress born outside of the United States who came to this country at 16 years old by myself as an immigrant and very proud to have helped lead the we belong together coalition and so I wanna say thank you so much tomorrow is rising and to all of the groups that have been a part of this coalition it was almost a decade ago that gloria steinem and I wrote an op ed that was published called emphasis Immigration is a women's issue and it was almost six years ago that we belong together took on the task of really trying to help people understand that three quarters of immigrants to the United States are women and children and that our work has been to demonstrate the incredible contributions of women immigrants to our country and also the unfairness of the portrayal of a system that makes you think that somehow all these folks that are coming into the country are scary and largely men none of that is actually true every single immigrant to this country that Helps deliver food on our tables that helps take care of our kids that helps clean our hotel rooms and our restaurant serves our in our restaurants every single one of our immigrants whether doctors lawyers or in the service industry we know are contributing tremendous amounts and women immigrants in particular have always been at the forefront of courage of resilience and yes even fairness and so the effort now to lift up women Ma Our kids and to show the incredible unfairness of what is happening across our country I'm so proud to work with my friend senator harris on the dunn act um and I'm so proud to be really focusing attention on how we overhaul the entire immigration detention system there's another bill called the dignity for detained immigrants act which says we need to rethink what we're doing a lot of the folks that we are separating and putting at the putting into detention Do not deserve to be in jail and that is what immigration detention is what we know is that the policies of this administration have continued to rip families apart we know that when families are kept together we are all strong we know that we belong together and so when the attorney general says he's going to Institute a new policy at the border that literally tears children from their mothers we know that Shameful it is shameful for who we are as a country and what we stand for and now we have continued to hear stories my office is flooded with stories of moms who are literally screaming as their children are ripped from their arms of parents who are being separated every single day and ultimately yes the harm that we do to our children is enormous but so is the harm that we do to who we are as a country because the truth Is the immigration policy has never really been about immigration it has always been about who we are as a country and what we're willing to stand up for so today as we talk about family separation and we specifically talk about the role of women in the immigration system let's remember that our immigration system is what I call ss exclusion airy it has actually been constructed to put forward particularly industries for example that are populated by men even though domestic workers and service workers largely women immigrants and immigrants of color have been excluded From that system we have work to do to make sure that we stand up for our values for our country and for our women who in the at the end of the day are the most resilient courageous incredible people I can imagine keeping our families and our communities together so we're gonna continue to fight what this administration is doing and continue to fight the stereotypes that simply aren't true let's talk about the reality of where we are and what we need to do and I want to thank the incredible coalition again of organizations that have been part of this struggle Really redefine who immigrants are and what our immigration system should be thank you Thank you next we'll hear from a mom's rising member isabel se lease it's a belt he said Thank you good afternoon everyone um so thank you for all the information that you know has been share I'm here to share my personal story and um my name is isabel so nice and I'm a member of months racing and my family is one of the many that has been devastated by your country's inhumane immigration policies for six weeks last summer my uh my pregnant sister was sitting for six weeks uh in a detention facility in San Diego the Center was simply not equipped to care for pregnant women while she was a teen and she suffer a campaign to Cramping and pain and she worry about me scaring her child her baby for her unborn baby yes she would only receive Thailand over the paint um she fell unconscious twice while detained and she was not taking to the hospital her request for basic medical procedures were all like normal she was forced to do hard labor using products that made her feel and likely were not safe for pregnant women even when she finally received the most basic care it was revealed that her pleasure had dropped today Levels yet that's tough enough performing any further testing or was not taking to the hospital my sisters my like many women in detention didn't have a criminal record she is a hardworking and devoted mother and yet she was treated like a hardened criminal denied basic medical care and separated from her children thanks to the advocacy of moms rising and um she is now reunited with her family but this experience Voice training for the family for her but most importantly for her children for her three daughters her dis her detention because my nieces to suffer severe and siding and depression during this detention as she they felt that their mother had abandoned them women like my sister and so many other should not be detained at all we must push back at this Ma against this administration's cruel immigration policies we must provide oversight and end detention of pregnant women pt and develop humane Immigration laws that protect people's wellbeing and dignity no mother should ever have to go through the pain of being separated from her children and not children should ever go through the trauma and the pain of being separated from their mother or being denied us the most basic medical care in any situation thank you all for the work that you do thank you months racing for your work and thank you to everyone for being here today Thank you next we'll here from kathleen a ope stirs who is with the women's refugee Commission migrant rights and Justice program Good afternoon and thank you for being here my name is katerina officer and I'm a senior policy adviser in the women's refugee Commission migrant rights and Justice program for nearly 30 years we have worked to improve the lives and protect the rights of displaced women and children around the world we have documented with horror and dismay as this administration has systematically dismantled this country systems to protect those who are fleeing persecution and harm in particular The White House the Department of homeland security and the Department of Justice seem intent on targeting women who are often facing unimaginable gender based on gun violence at home and hopefully lead to protect the lives of their children the attacks are occurring at the same time as this administration seeks to massively ramp up the use of immigration detention system that we have already documented in recent years have seen a substantial increase in the number of women detained on any given day all right I Closely tracked both the issue of the detention of pregnant women and the practice of separating families at the border over the last several years I will never forget when on a visit to a detention Center some years ago I spoke to a pregnant woman who is seeking asylum in the United States the facility where she was like all ice detention centers had no adobe July on care on sites and despite the fact that she was suffering from serious pain and uncomfortable even her request for just a second mattress to help with her pain had been denied I will also Forget went on another visit to a detention Center a woman ran up to me sobbing she had arrived just a few days before with her six year old son but border officials she told me he had taken her son away from her they had given her no information on where he would be taking In trying to understand where he had gone how she could find him and how could I ever speak to him again let alone be reunited with him alarmed by these stories that we have been hearing more recently in the last year we received help to file two major complaints with vhs oversight offices the office of civil rights and civil rights civil liberties and the office of inspector general is complaints represent women who have suffered miscarriages and hospitalization while pregnant and children as young as one or two separated from their parents at the border they document trauma By these practices as well as the near impossible battle that these women and families face as they try to navigate our asylum process while in detention pregnant or separated from their families in the last two months alone this administration has announced a new policy as you've heard that allows more pregnant women to be detained and potentially longer periods of time and declaring a so called zero tolerance policy towards border closers it has instead enacted a defacto family separation policy time and again Administration tries to misrepresent his policies as being So to a port of entry to seek asylum despite the fact that home Reports are often turned away and left stranded make no mistake these policies are brazen and cruel attempt at deterrence no one seeking protection for their family the price for lawfully seeking asylum is to be torn apart from their child or locked up while pregnant today W rc is so proud to stand with our many partners and our congressional leaders who are fighting and standing up against this cruel inhumane practices We applaud their leader's side of our congressional leaders and major and others urged others to join them country lives up to its values as a place where women families and children can find safety and protection thank you Next I'd like to invite up our the latte from we belong together It was another person I came to this country 10 years ago with a family vowed to me to take care of the their home and the children and for unfortunately they became abusive and I had to leave and and I have to leave the House of my employees I have been working I have In oregon use it ando commented the medical work is very day then and I have a small daughter mamie our who always one year and seven months older as a domestic worker my income is very low and I don't have any protection like other worker have so I applied for the food the stand before my daughter to make sure that that she get the food that is she needs The girl healthy presently trump announced that the you want to punish immigrant mother like me for applying for the governor For our child and born in this country if it does become true I will have to choose between feeding my daughter and taking her to the doctor or being able to to get paper to stay in the country which arm I am I am her I am her only family here in the sporting dairy to putting I did the risk off with their protection their protection we live how to completely alone why I will our government to do that my daughter is a citizen of this country and she had she has a right to receive what they're supporting and That is supporting she needed to grow healthy and a strong trump is not adjusted by an issue immigrant a mom like me he is a punishing is a punishing children who were born in this country and they have the right to to every ride like everyone else I ask the Congress to do anything you can to stop it this from helping To protect immigrant a woman in the shoulder and anyway you can thank you Thank you and next where he'll we're hear from jennifer pod cool from uh kind kids in need of defense here Hi everybody thank you very much for including us here today and we're very honored to be able to speak uh to all of you about the cruel attacks on families by this administration and my name is jennifer pod cl I worked at kids in need of defense and we provide legal representation to unaccompanied children seeking humanitarian protection and the United States our job which was already hard to begin with it's only gotten harder with the systematic attacks on our Justice system that were designed to process children's cases with implant Nation of policies ordering children to be taken away from their parents at the border this administration is creating an unaccompanied children's crisis these children have loving parents doing everything in their power to protect them but our government is instead taking them away and putting them in federal detention detention facilities and military bases as a lawyer for children as a mother and as an American I stand here today to say I condemn these attacks on families children Many of those seeking protection in the United States Winning incredible high rates of aesthetic and sexual violence in guatemala El salvador and Honduras gangs use sexual violence as a strategy to maintain fear and control rape is widespread and is used by gang members to discipline girls women and family members for failure to comply with the gangs orders rates of gender motivated killings have increased dramatically over the past several years and tragically the majority of sexual and gender based crimes go unpunished our Response to these women right now is go away we don't care about you but I know America is better than this thank you Thank you and next we'll hear from an a to by President for gratitude at the National women's law Center and that seeing Thank you so much for having me here today I am a true from the National women's law Center I come here to stand in solidarity with all my immigrant sisters this administration is attacking immigrants is an attack on all women women make up nearly half of the immigrant population in the us and as you've heard in many cases immigrant women have fled from debates violence in their home and to come here but once here immigrant women are being victimized by the trump administration the trump administration It's perfect for venting victims of domestic violence without legal status from accessing Justice and protection they are tearing away children from their parents and even going so far as to deny a woman access to abortion care until court stepped in and told them though and if these policies were not cruel enough as you heard from another mom today the administration wants to go further the trump administration is considering a public charge rule that would target Immigrants including those who are here lawfully as well as us citizens under the current policy non us citizens looking to enter the us must show that they are not likely to future to rely on certain government programs or in layman's term become a public charge the administration wants to dramatically expand the definition of public charge so that includes critical services and programs that help families meet their very basic needs we're talking about Programs like the earned income tax credit wick which helps provide nutrition assistance for babies and their mothers medicaid and much more we all want our nation to prosper to do that all families who live here must be able to get the care and services they need to thrive but the administration's rule would force families like ad leads to choose between getting the help they need and reuniting with those they love this is simply an So I stand here today to reject this administration's treatment of immigrant women and their families we must choose a better path forward and that includes choosing common sense and humane policies that build a brighter future for all of us thank you So as I mentioned over 50 women's organizations just in the last 48 hours have signed on to our letter asking Congress to begin to enact legislation that ensures the dignity and immigrant women and children um we have some of those organizations here today and I wanted to get a sense of the breadth of those organizations I've asked them to just Super quick come up and just say why they're here or one or two sentences and will go in Alphabetical order by Organization so we'll start with deb began from the American Association of University women thank you Thank you I never began the senior vice President of public policy and research at the American Association of University women for a hundred and 35 years we have been advocating to increase access to education and employment opportunities for women and girls this administration has forgotten something very important and that is this country is great because of our diversity and not in spite of it that is why we're proud here we're proud to stand here today with all of these groups and addressing the inhumane policies of this administration but I want to say one Quick word about dhaka and this isn't a program that has helped women and girls and youth all over our country go to school work being our communities we have a horrifying fear of deportation it's important to note that women make up a majority of active Dr recipients and all of these women a majority hold a College degree because of the president's reckless decision and congress's lack of action the future for thousands of women and girls and youth hangs in the balance we urge Congress to pass the Dream act and take other measures protect our most vulnerable In America this bill and other bills we're talking about today would ensure that doors to education and doors the equal opportunity stay open we stand by all of those who want a better life and we call on Congress to do what the administration has not and that is to keep our promises stay true to our ideals and treat all people with respect dignity and fairness thank you Thank you next we'll hear from kristin Stewart with from futures without violence Thank you we are honored to be here today and stand with our colleagues because no woman regardless of where she is born ever deserves to be beat raped or killed and yet that is what this administration's policies are doing they're playing right into the hands of abusers with their vicious and cruel immigration policies they are in some cases driving women directly back into the homes of men who have already tried to kill them and by keeping women and children in this country afraid they're making all of us less safe because no one Wants to reach out for help me futures without violence stand with all immigrants survivors of violence and we will not give up until every family has the opportunity to live safely together with dignity and love thank you Next we'll hear from molly hogan from mormon women for ethical government molly My name is molly and I'm the senior director at monument circle government important uh our engagement uh land and we are proud to stand with Uh leaders today and um this is what our admin or Organization wants to say as members of mormon women for ethical government we adamantly reject the idea that we as a nation can persecute families women children and fathers as the current administration has done at our southern border without harming and hurting us all we stand with you today as women leaders and refused to disconnect ourselves from the reality Policies and practices which result in the separation of families and violate human dignity or morally wrong and cannot be justified by any means as women it will fall to us to our leadership and strength to ensure that compassion wisdom and accountability remain embedded in the bedrock of our nation's moral identity thank you And next we'll hear from jacqueline from the National Asian Pacific American women's forum jacqueline Hi my name is jacqueline dean I am the policy associate at the National Asian Pacific American women's forum we're the only National Organization advocating for the human rights and social Justice of api women and girls uh in the us we work on reproductive rights and we've got rides in economic Justice in eighteen 75 before the Chinese exclusion act the us pass its first immigration law that restricted the movement of Chinese women to the us and it specifically said that any immigration officer who deems that A Chinese woman who they thought was immoral would not be able to come to this country and so from then on they have been trying to separate our families and they have been trying to restrict our bodily autonomy and restrict the movement of immigrant women because they know that immigrant women are at the crux of our communities and that they are the leaders of our families but we know that when we invest in immigrant women we are investing in immigrant communities and we are making America a better place um ever from restricting um people like Jane doe and other young immigrant women from abortion access to ice to take Pregnant women um to do bart stations across the country not just um not just uh doctor recipients but also vietnamese refugees who have been there their entire life are being deported uh by this administration and now as my colleague anna mentioned um the public towards expansion is forcing immigrant women to choose between being able to provide for their families using public benefits and their immigration status and we know that I'm an immigrant and immigrant women are given these choices they sacrifice for their family and not popular To fight um light all of these attacks in every direction and we hope you can join us thank you Next we'll hear from Richard rachel garber from the National coalition against domestic violence Hi my name is rachel graber and I'm the director of public policy at the National coalition against domestic violence the voices of victims and survivors policies that Democrat demonized immigrants force immigrant victims and survivors of domestic violence to the shadows putting them at risk for continuing and escalating violence and providing abusers with a powerful tool of uh course of control as a result of current anti immigrant policies your immigrant victims are reaching out to law enforcement for help Furthermore we are very very concerned about attorney general sessions decision to review a longstanding rule by the board of immigration appeals establishing severe domestic violence with no access to safety as a cause to Grant asylum uh reversal will put countless lives in danger we stand with all victims and survivors we stand for all the cancer survivors we stand with and for immigrants victims and survivors and okay thank you Next we'll hear from faith women safe Williams from the National Council of Jewish women Thank you I'm from philly so I talk back alright hi my name is pete Williams and I work for the National Council of Jewish women over a century ago and cj we establish an agency at ellis island to support and aid immigrant families with partner offices and 200 and 50 cities providing job training and legally for immigrant women we continue this work today by advocating for policies to welcome and support all immigrants and refugees regardless of religion gender sexual orientation nationality or anything else every day the admin Driven no small part by senior policy adviser Stephen Miller introduces new ways to harm immigrants and refugees they have to separate families deport those who have lived here for decades detained children prevent women from accessing critical health care including abortion care and beyond these policies lack all compassion and rationality and this chapter in American immigration policy will be remembered as a shameful one in American history our own government was complicit in denying entry to so many Jews at the exact moment in history when it was most needed so we as Jewish women are particularly charged to do everything we can to fight the xena phobic and racist policies we call on Congress to pass legislation that affirms the dignity of immigrant women and children and all those seeking refuge in our nation I thank you and thanks so much to moms rising And next I have a honor of introducing an amazing advocate for women and children leader pelosi Thank you very much and thank your moms rising for bringing us all together here that beautiful sound the sound of the future the sound of the future here we are to talk about an approach that is so anti family so out of the question that you have to wonder what is going on and their alleged minds and certainly in their hearts it was a number of Ago that the administration first told me before the first of the year that they knew how to deal with children that they didn't think the mothers were responsible for bringing what they would bring their children across the desert in a dangerous way and I said to them do you realize that these mothers had no choice that this was what they had to do to protect their children from danger and all kinds of terrible uh occurrences and they said well These mothers do not act responsibly and we know how to take care of the children we're gonna be take them away from their mothers and we're going to do other things including putting them in foster homes now as a mother of five and a grandmother of nine and and when you have children a lot of children have grandchildren you think everybody who have responsibility for everybody's child and my only reason for being in politics is that one in five children in America lives in poverty so when they said I didn't know whether to resort to violence over the phone because it was so unnatural and so so we say out of keeping with anybody who had a sense of family and I didn't point out over a half pointed out over and over again that this President is the first Republican President in modern times to be so anti new To our country anti family in fact President reagan when when when President Obama and active the uh doctor et cetera he did so because Congress did not act President reagan at even after Congress acted as he said you did not go far enough so we introduced family fair honest and he has President George herbert Walker Bush embrace that and actually they protected a higher protect point percentage of family members of people than President Obama that was a value shared in a bipartisan way led by President reagan President George herbert Walker Bush continued by President Clinton President George W Bush who cared about immigrants in his heart as well as in his policy and of course President Obama and then along comes this President who no longer who know won't know not only is anti immigrant not recognizing that the concept that immigrants are the constant reiteration of America but they say they know about family and that the good things they will do for these children is take them away from their parents from their mothers Shocking but the same people who are on the same day the first lady said children come first we have to give priority to children God bless her for that that same day they cut seven billion dollars out of the children's health insurance program out of chip that same week they were cutting billions tens of billions of dollars out of fruit stands for children and so a way that children are we not of family values are we not but of all of the bad things that they have done the wrong decisions they have made nothing is more Revealing I think more hurtful than what they're talking about with children I met with hundreds of foster kids the other day when I told them that this was what the administration was suggesting even for those young teenagers they knew whether they had a good or bad foster experience that you don't take children away from their parents and do so saying we know better what's good for the So thank all of you for calling attention to all of this I think it speaks loudly and maybe maybe they will understand maybe if their family members told them maybe if their children said it's not a good idea to take children away from families and pretend that you care about family values so we have to put a stop to this and there's no better way than to make sure the American people are aware of it and thank you moms rising we altogether last Friday for our mom summit Talking about how important it was for moms and families to have opportunity and uh and also for their views to be known and affect public policy moms rising and all the other organizations that are here today thank you for making it known to the public is lincoln said public sentiment is everything and for the public to act upon that sentiment they have to know what the challenge is you are doing that thank you so much for working so hard for our children For our future thank you all thank you thank you thank you and I'd like to take this moment to uh present this letter to leader pelosi that over 50 oregon women's organizations have signed on to in the last 48 hours and many more are coming that urges uh Congress to enact legislation that affirms the dignity of immigrant women and children and to engage in aggressive oversight of the trump administration's unfair and destructive treatment of immigrants and asylum And we thank you so much for being a champion for moms and kids and Congress think you done very much thank you so much ice it is addressed to the Speaker and mitch mcconnell chuck schumer and to me and I will make sure that they know were aware that they had rescinded you thank you thank you Okay we have four more quick statements and then we'll take questions if there are any uh we have Kim gandy from the National network to end domestic violence next thank you thank you hi I'm Kim gandy I'm President of the National network to end domestic violence which represents the 56 data territorial coalitions and more than two thousand local domestic violence programs around the country and those programs everyday work with immigrant survivors of sexual and domestic violence and we know what these policies are doing we did a recent survey with six other National organ Sessions of 700 advocates who work with survivors local and 78 percent of them said that immigrant survivors now express concerns about contacting the police for help 75 percent said different servers 43 percent worked with immigrant survivors who have dropped their civil or criminal cases has a fear of these policies this is not only new it is credited to my own has been a bipartisan issue for decades and the Congress has worked on a bipartisan basis through the violence against women act the trafficking victims protection act and others to make sure that victims have access Safety security and protections and that immigrant victims of domestic and sexual violence are protected this has been up ended by the administration and we call on Congress to immediately repair this with prompt action our country is better than this you next we have Sarah flash Bank from the National partnership for women and families Good afternoon uh my name is Sarah flights think and as I said I'm here representing the National partnership for women and families at the National partnership we believe that actions speak louder than words and the trump administration's actions in separating asylum seeking parents from their children and detaining pregnant women are crawl and demonstrate disregard for the health and wellbeing of women and children we stand with immigrant women and their families and our partner organizations here today and across the country in calling on Congress to promote the best interests of all families We often hear words about family values we need actions that demonstrate that our elected leaders really value families thank you You next we'll hear from bridget gomez from planned parenthood Everyone my name is bridgette Planned parenthood federation of America and we are proud to be here today is announce the attacks by the continued attacks on the trump pence administration that continue to threaten and ripped families apart and put their health care at risk it is unacceptable to turn our backs on families and children who need us most we must protect the rights and safety of all family and children especially those seeking refuge living in a healthy and safe environment is alongside your family is part of living in a a complete healthy life and we will continue to fight for those rights for all women thank you Thank you next we'll hear from natalie Green from ultraviolet thank you Hi I'm natalie Green with ultraviolet a National women's advocacy group dedicated to ending sexism and ending violence against women um the trump administration likes to pretend to have the moral high ground on immigration saying that mothers are smugglers for doing what any mother would do which is to bring their children to safety at the same time this administration detaining pregnant immigrant women stocks victims of crimes in court houses tried to rescind asylum for survivors of domestic and sexual violence and whip still Away from their mothers to prevent the wrong type of people from coming into this country it is the duty of every feminist to recognize that immigrant rights are women's rights issue and when this administration perpetuates violence against women at home and violence against women seeking refuge it's congress's duty to step in thank you And last but not least we have alicia gill from ywca thank you bye hello everyone what an honor to be here my name is elisa a sanchez skill but it's been say um and I am here representing the ywca and the two million women the more than two million women and families that we serve every single day um the trump administration strategy of dehumanizing and dis empowering immigrant communities and communities of color cannot be tolerated accepted normalized or ignored at ywca is across the country every day we see the tim Of these policies on women and families and in particular on survivors of domestic violence just last week a woman in one of our program um with detained by ice while trying to get custody of her children um we cannot ignore this and we cannot pretend that this is okay um our local communities are working with this mom to make sure that she is safe and that her kids are safe but here together we're rallying around our communities to make sure that we know and make sure that everyone here is that um if Administration does not care about immigrant women it does not care about women full stop um the choice between violence at home and violence and abuse at home and the choice between the tension and being ripped away from your children is a choice that no survivor should have to make immigrant Justice is racial Justice is women's Justice is gender Justice and we stand with you we stand with you moms rising and with all of our coalition partners and for the 100 and 60 years that we've been here and as long as the work is needed we stand with women and families thank you Thank you and now I'd like to open it up to questions if there are any Okay well thank you all for coming thank you especially to my colleagues can digest so too and linda and to lisa and emily for their work on this and thank you to all our coalition partners thank you for coming