Special Interest Alien Reporting Act of 2025

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mrs. RAMIREZ. Mr. Speaker, of course I rise in opposition to H.R. 275.

Before I get into the conversation of the bill that we are debating today, I want to respond to this whole thing about transparency that I continue to hear my colleagues talk about. They talk about smoke on this side, and they are all about transparency.

Well, if Republicans are really all about transparency, why is it that Members of Congress can't show up to a detention center and do their congressional oversight and see what is going on in those detention centers?

It seems like Republicans are okay with transparency when it is convenient to them, but when it is about Members of Congress, regardless of their party that they are a part of, going to one of these detention centers or holding centers, they are not okay with transparency. We have heard that pregnant women are sleeping on the ground being starved and people are wearing the same clothing for days because they are at a holding center where they should have been going through due process.

Unfortunately, there is no transparency there because what they end up saying is, send an email or transparency only works when it is convenient to the Republicans.

I just want to say it is really hypocritical to hear my colleagues here talk about transparency when they seem to be hiding violations of human rights every single day.

I want to be honest about the bill we are debating right now. This is not a bill of national security. If it were, it wouldn't propose to make sensitive security information public.

No, this bill is just Republicans' latest attempt to give the Trump administration another anti-immigrant tool so that they can continue to do the fear-mongering that they know how to do so well. It is just another list that Donald Trump and Kristi Noem and Republicans and the sponsor here can use to justify their unlawful, abusive actions.

You want to disappear people from California? Just say that new members of the latest criminal organization were found crossing the southern border. You want Americans to surrender their rights? Well, fearmonger and tell them that a special interest alien from a criminal organization is operating a cell in their neighborhood.

The Trump administration has already demonstrated to us that they are comfortable, under the guise of national security and protection, abusing every tool and system that we have. The administration has weaponized every well-intentioned tool that this body has authorized to make immigration more humane. What makes us think that this list will be any different?

I refuse to hand over greater authority and power to DHS given all the ways that they are running rampant through our States and cities, breaking down doors and kidnapping mothers, children, and law-abiding neighbors who have contributed to our communities for years.

They have proven to be completely untrustworthy and downright hostile to oversight, accountability, and compliance with the rule of law, so they can't be trusted with additional tools and mandates with which they can violate our rights.

Let me be very clear: For Trump and Noem, today's report is tomorrow's anti-immigrant, fascist tool.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote against this bill.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source