The Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen faced tough questions from Democrats Thursday during a Congressional hearing on President Trump’s immigration policies. Representative Luis Gutierrez, a Democrat from Illinois, used his time to blast President Trump for his statements about Mexicans. Gutierrez also took aim at Secretary Nielsen, calling her a “liar” and saying, “shame on you.” But the Illinois congressman’s harshest comments may have come when he turned to to the Biblical King Herod, who is infamous for trying to kill all of the boys under two in his kingdom. Gutierrez said that Jesus, whose family fled Herod’s kingdom for Egypt, would not have survived in the Trump administration.
Gutierrez said, “It is repugnant to me, and astonishing to me, that during Christmas, a time in which we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, a Jesus Christ who had to flee for his life with Mary and Joseph — thank God there wasn’t a wall that stopped him from seeking refuge in Egypt. Thank God that wall wasn’t there. And thank God there wasn’t an administration like this — or he would have too, have perished, on the 28th, on the Day of Innocents, when Herod ordered the murder of every child under two years of age. Maybe I haven’t gone a lot to Bible school, but I know that part.”
Gutierrez continued, “Shame on everybody that separates children and allows them to stay on the other side of the border…shame on us for wearing our badge of Chirstianity during Christmas and allowing the Secretary to come here and lie.”
When Gutierrez was done, Nielsen, who had been quietly taking notes throughout his speech, replied. She said, “Calling me a liar are fighting words. We’ve never had a policy of child separation. I’m happy to walk the gentleman through it again. A policy of child separation would mean that any family I would encounter in the interior, I would separate. It would mean that any family I found at a port of entry, I would separate. It would mean that every single family that I found illegally crossing we would separate. We did none of those. What we did do was uphold the laws that Congress has passed. And we prosecuted those who choose to come here illegally.”
Nielsen didn’t stop talking; you can watch the rest of her speech above, or here. But at about this point, Gutierrez, shaking his head, stood up and walked out of the room.