Motion to Discharge--S. Res. 195

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. PADILLA. Mr. President, I first want to begin by thanking my colleagues Senator Kaine and Senator Van Hollen--I believe Senator Schumer will be joining us--for this important issue. I want to thank them for their efforts to provide some needed moral clarity at this critical time.

Earlier this year--I hope you have seen the news reports--all across the country, there were stories of families waking up to learn that their loved ones had disappeared--a husband with no criminal record detained after a routine immigration appointment, complying with the conditions of his status at the moment; another instance was a makeup artist, who had fled Venezuela after being targeted for sexual orientation and political views, one day gone simply for having crown tattoos in honor of his parents; a mother who learned the whereabouts of her son only when she saw his face on propaganda videos released by El Salvador.

Over 200 migrants were sent to El Salvador's notorious, high-security prison known as CECOT. By the way, that includes eight women whom the Trump administration mistakenly flew to the all-male prison, only to have to fly them back. But hundreds of men have been sent to prison with no trial even, no sentence, no end date, no communication with the outside world.

Let me be the first to say and I think I speak on behalf of my colleagues when I say that if you have committed a crime in the United States of America, then, yes, you deserve to be prosecuted. But, as we all know--and I hope we continue to respect--we have a justice system to do just that, a justice system that has a process for those charged with a crime to be found guilty or innocent, because, yes, you actually have to be found guilty in a court to be guilty. Now, that shouldn't be controversial.

Anyone who claims to be for ``law and order'' has to be for both law and order. You can't just overlook the ``law'' part of the slogan. But Republicans continue to leave out that fact and the fact that the overwhelming majority of those deported had no criminal records.

A report from ``60 Minutes'' just last month showed that 75 percent of those deported to CECOT had no criminal record. These were people who in many cases had pending asylum cases or some other sort of immigration protection. But simply because they may have tattoos, the Trump administration has decided to use them for a poorly executed and expensive publicity stunt.

As I think Senator Van Hollen began to explain to us, if Republicans allow Donald Trump to make himself judge, jury, and executioner, then we are all in trouble. This is the behavior of a foreign dictator, not the President of the United States. A dictator wishes to do away with due process and disappearing loved ones to foreign countries without a trace.

This administration is violating Federal law by sending people to places like CECOT and, soon, maybe Libya, where they may very well face torture or some other horrific treatment.

For anybody who thinks this may not concern them because they are an American citizen, think again. You may not actually be given an opportunity to prove your citizenship before you are sent away. Donald Trump has said publicly that he wants to imprison American citizens in El Salvador next--not my words; his--so there is no telling where all of this is going to lead.

We have seen Federal courts time and again rebuff the Trump administration's lawlessness and order them to take steps to return wrongfully deported immigrants. We have also seen the Trump administration continue to resist and ignore court orders.

So, colleagues, the resolution before us today would force the Trump administration to start opening up the books, to tell us what meaningful actions they are taking to comply, to be accountable to the American people, and, yes, demand that the administration publish a report on the human rights violations being committed by the country Trump is so willingly embracing. But it also does another thing. It puts us all on the record because history will judge not only those who willingly embraced the erosion of civil rights that is happening, but it will also judge those who chose to sit back and watch it happen over and over again.

Every Member of this body has to decide whether they will stand up and demand answers from the administration or sit silently while Trump imprisons innocent men.

This is more than just about immigrants or immigration. This is about due process. This is about civil rights. This is about the foundation of our liberties.

I urge my colleagues to join us in holding this administration accountable.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source