Holding Power Accountable

Floor Speech

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Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, I thank my friend for organizing this critical Special Order hour to shed light on the horrors inflicted on immigrant communities by the Trump administration.

I am proud to represent the Inland Empire of southern California just east of Los Angeles. My district is home to a thriving immigrant community. It has been enriched by immigrants just like so many other communities across the country.

In recent weeks, this community has been plagued by fear. Images of masked agents dragging people out of cars, using excessive force, and disappearing individuals in unmarked cars are sowing fear. We cannot allow this to continue. Make no mistake, this is all on President Trump.

The President has instructed ICE to meet arbitrary deportation quotas. Their aggressive and baseless target number of 3,000 daily arrests does not require them to focus on violent offenders and criminals.

Instead, mothers and fathers who have been in this country for years with no criminal record and who have raised their children in the United States are being targeted.

This administration's claim that it aims to deport violent criminals is a falsehood.

What we are witnessing is the erosion of due process.

I have been especially troubled by the image of a landscaper, a man whose sons have served in the Marines, being punched repeatedly in the head by ICE agents this past Sunday.

Is this something my Republican colleagues are proud of? That we repay veterans of the United States Marine Corps by assaulting, detaining, and deporting their father who was simply trying to provide for his family?

Last week, I joined several of my colleagues to tour the Adelanto ICE detention center. Thanks to the work of my colleague, Representative Judy Chu, our delegation was able to enter the facility to conduct an oversight visit and speak with some of those being detained.

What I saw was people held in deplorable conditions, many of them being denied access to clean clothes for 10 days. Immigrant detention is a multimillion-dollar industry with some private prison groups now aiming to cash in on the funding included in the Republican spending bill.

The GEO Group that owns Adelanto boasted about a $31 million windfall if they keep full capacity.

Republicans want to boost the funding of ICE to hire more masked agents and pay out more contracts like that at Adelanto.

According to my Republican colleagues, our budget is too tight to provide healthcare or groceries for those in need, it is too tight to keep hospitals in rural areas open, but it is flush with enough cash to pay for more masked agents and more inhumane detention facilities for those who are beaten and dragged off the street.

This is not who we are. This is not the character of our country. I don't think my Republican colleagues understand the gravity of their silence. It seems they have been silenced from speaking out against this brutality due to their fear of this President.

They are even too afraid to hold townhalls to face their own constituents directly. It is sad that many Members of Congress have rolled over and enabled this cruelty that is now happening in our country.

There are Members on this side of the aisle who have not been silent, who have actively opposed this President and will continue to speak out. Democrats will continue to be a check against this President. We will continue to fight for the due process rights of every American. We will continue to show up in our communities so that the American people can see that there are some Members of Congress who will actually listen to and fight for them.

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