CNN reported Thursday that U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) “grew emotional” at a press conference recalling the photos of the father and young daughter who drowned crossing the Southern border.
Hirono also deplored seeing the conditions of children at the migrant detention centers.

“When you saw the pictures of the kids at these detention facilities. When you saw the father, the little girl drowned in the Rio Grande. And if you didn’t feel shame, pain. If you weren’t appalled by these pictures, then something is dead or dying in your hearts and in the heart of America,” Hirono said.
Watch the video here.
The news conference in Washington, D.C., was to introduce the “Stop Cruelty to Migrant Children Act.”
The legislation from Senate Democrats “seeks to provide additional guardrails and standards for migrant children and families two weeks after Congress passed the border supplemental, which was criticized by many Democrats for not doing enough to protect migrants.”
The bill’s passage is uncertain in the GOP-controlled Senate.
Hirono immigrated to the U.S. from Japan when she was a child.
Kids packed into detention facilities, a father and daughter drowned in the Rio Grande. If you saw these photos and felt no shame or pain, if you weren’t appalled, then something is dead or dying in your heart. We have a crisis of conscience in our country. pic.twitter.com/T4BvRtg53P
— Senator Mazie Hirono (@maziehirono) July 11, 2019
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About the Author
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Chad Blair is the politics editor for Civil Beat. You can reach him by email at cblair@civilbeat.org or follow him on X at @chadblairCB.