Visit to Bluebonnet Detention Facility

Floor Speech

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Ms. JOHNSON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, earlier this month, I visited the Bluebonnet Detention Facility in Anson, Texas, about 3 hours outside of Dallas. What I saw was deeply disturbing. It speaks to the harmful policies under Donald Trump and Secretary Noem, policies that are ripping families apart, wasting taxpayer dollars, and making our communities less safe.

Bluebonnet was built to house prisoners under the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, but in 2019 the first Trump administration handed a contract to a private prison company to convert it into an ICE detention center. Today, instead of prioritizing dangerous criminals, those who commit rape, murder, or trafficking drugs, people who pose real threats to our communities, ICE is filling this facility with people who have done absolutely nothing wrong and are being targeted simply because of the color of their skin.

As a Member of Congress and as a member of the Homeland Security Committee, I have both the right and the responsibility to see what is happening inside these facilities. For years, Members of Congress could visit unannounced, but under Secretary Noem, that right was stripped away. My team and I worked for weeks just to gain entry and finally got a scheduled appointment.

When I visited, 1,079 people were being detained at Bluebonnet. Nearly 700 of them, almost two-thirds, were designated by ICE itself as a low threat. Let me repeat: Hundreds of people with no violent history, no record of serious crimes, targeted solely because of the color of their skin, were denied their constitutional rights and then locked away in a detention center.

I met with several detained individuals. Here is a common story that we came across. A man came here more than two decades ago and worked a blue-collar job. He raised his family in Texas. He has children whom he loves and who depend on him. He hasn't committed any violent crimes or sold any drugs. His only offense was a traffic stop. Now, he faces deportation to a country he left decades ago.

My question is: How is this fair? Why are people who are contributing to our economy, who are working hard and making sure that our citizens are being taken care of, being targeted instead of all of the violent criminals?

This is what is happening under Trump. They are not prioritizing threats to public safety. They are not going after violent offenders. They are taking workers out of our economy. They are spreading fear in communities where families should feel safe, and they are doing it with our taxpayer dollars.

Let me be very clear. Locking up people who pose no danger to our communities does not make us safer. It weakens us. It destabilizes families. It wastes resources that should be used to pursue violent criminals, traffickers, and those who actually endanger our neighbors.

As I left the detention center that day, an employee from ICE made one request: Stop politicizing us.

It is the White House that needs to hear this message most of all. Trump and Secretary Noem are not using taxpayer dollars to keep communities safe; they are using it as political theater. They dress up in ICE jackets, parade through detention centers, and turn detainees into props for their campaigns.

This isn't law enforcement. It is performance. It makes a mockery of our justice system by prioritizing sensational videos over safety and cruelty over compassion. This is political theater at the expense of human lives.

We need a smarter and fairer approach. That means alternatives to detention that allow people to remain with their families while their case moves forward. It means investing in an immigration system that is fair, fast, and final so that people can have their cases heard in front of a judge and are not left in limbo for years. It means prioritizing dangerous individuals, not hardworking parents who have built their lives in our communities.

People who play by the rules, follow the law, and adhere to the guidelines laid out before them should never be targeted because of the color of their skin and denied due process. Our society should not accept this, and this administration needs to put a stop to this injustice.

That is what I saw at Bluebonnet, a betrayal of our values as a nation. We are a country of immigrants. We are a country that claims to honor family, community, and fairness. Yet, the Trump administration is locking up people who are simply trying to work, raise families, and contribute to our community. This is not about fairness or safety, and it is not who we claim to be as Americans.

Congress must step up and hold this administration accountable. We must work in a bipartisan way to build an immigration system that keeps people safe and ensures that people's rights are respected. Locking up neighbors who pose no threat does not make us stronger. It divides us. It weakens us, and it undermines everything that we stand for.

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