We Cannot Normalize Cruelty

Floor Speech

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Mr. GARCIA of Illinois. Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of the Protecting Sensitive Locations Act, which I introduced with my colleague, Representative Espaillat of New York, last week. No one, no child in the classroom, no mother in a hospital, no family at a place of worship, should live in fear that an immigration raid should shatter their lives in the very spaces meant to protect them.

Under the prior established norms, we understood that schools and hospitals and places of worship were off limits to Federal agencies. Now, in my district and across the country, patients are skipping their appointments, fearful that they could be detained by ICE and separated from their families.

Churches are turning to virtual worship services so that they will not put their parishioners at risk, and teachers have been training to stop ICE from entering their schools, to protect children.

We cannot become a government that normalizes cruelty. This bill will ensure that the promise of safety in those places is enshrined in law.

In America, we do not weaponize fear. We protect our communities, and we do what is right.

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