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(CNN)Decades before being elected to Congress, Rep. Adriano Espaillat arrived in America as a young boy before becoming an undocumented immigrant from the Dominican Republic. "I came here at the age of 9 with my parents and my brother and sister. We were here on a visa and overstayed," he told CNN's Alisyn Camerota Wednesday on "New Day." "I was a young boy but I remember my grandparents talking to us about being careful where we went, not approaching any strangers."

Freshman Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-NY) was the first formerly undocumented immigrant to be elected to Congress. But now, Espaillat is disappointed that the country he once saw as “a country of aspirations” has turned into “a country of deportation.” “Are we a country of deportation or are we a country of aspirations?” Espaillat asked CNN “New Day” host Alisyn Camerota. “I think that’s what’s on the table right now. Have we changed the course of America? Are we now a heavy-handed, bullying country, or are we a country that anybody could do anything, including an undocumented young boy that’s now a member of Congress.”

President Donald Trump’s immigration policies have the potential to alter the fabric of the United States, freshman Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.) said Wednesday morning, shifting the nation from “a country of aspirations” to “a country of deportation.”

U.S. Congressman Adriano Espaillat recently honored the two men who had his congressional seat before him for Black History Month: former Congressmen Adam Clayton Powell Jr. and Charles B. Rangel of New York’s 13th Congressional District.