Trump Immigration Policies

Floor Speech

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Ms. CHU. Mr. Speaker, this administration has thrown out the Constitution and asserted that the President has king-like power to arrest anybody in this country and deport them, even to a foreign prison for life, with no due process.

Days ago, we learned they deported a 4-year-old child with stage IV cancer and a 2-year-old American citizen.

We know that they are now going after Southeast Asian refugees from Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. They came here due to the U.S. depending on them as allies during the Vietnam war.

This was the case with Chanthon Bun, who fled to the U.S. with his family to escape the Cambodian genocide. Like many refugees, Bun found himself in an impoverished community and struggled to acclimate. He later fell in with the wrong crowd and made a mistake as a teenager. Bun has since served his time, and once granted parole, he has become a leader in his community.

In Trump's eyes, Bun's rehabilitation doesn't matter. Trump is now detaining and deporting Southeast Asian refugees who have had pauses on their deportation orders for decades and are deeply tied to their communities. Mr. Speaker, 15,000 of these refugees have deportation orders and are now being deported as they do the right thing and report for their ICE check-ins.

We will not stand for it. I will soon be reintroducing the Southeast Asian Deportation Relief Act, which would prevent the administration from deporting these refugees to countries where they have often never lived and ensure that those who have already been deported can return home to the U.S.

If the Trump administration can disappear immigrants to other countries without due process or deport refugees to places they have no memories of, we are all in danger.

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