Fighting Dhs Immigration Raids

Floor Speech

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Ms. JAYAPAL. Mr. Speaker, I thank Representative Ramirez for her incredible leadership on this issue and so many others. I thank the Congressional Progressive Caucus for the Special Order hour and the Hispanic Caucus for all the work that has been happening at this very, very serious moment in time.

I stand here as the top Democrat on the Immigration Integrity, Security and Enforcement Subcommittee on the Judiciary Committee. I have been conducting shadow hearings both here in D.C. and across the country.

In October, we had a shadow hearing in Chicago, Illinois, in the gentlewoman's home State. I really appreciate all the work she did to help us facilitate that. We had 18 Members of Congress from all over the country come to that shadow hearing, and it was the largest act of congressional immigration oversight since Donald Trump took office.

What we heard was alarming, and I have worked in this space for a very long time. Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino and his rogue immigration agents are terrorizing everyone regardless of immigration status.

We heard from an Active-Duty servicemember, someone who has put his life on the line for this country, who was heartbroken because he had to fly back to this country because his father had been deported and was gone before he even got back from his deployment. He said: I have put my life on the line for this country, and my father who has done nothing wrong was deported.

It was outrageous.

On Halloween weekend alone, Bovino deployed tear gas in a residential neighborhood as children were gathering for a Halloween parade. Border Patrol agents dragged a 67-year-old U.S. citizen from his car, breaking six of his ribs, while children in Halloween costumes watched in horror.

What was his crime?

Turning down a street to get home. That is what he did.

Bovino then went south to Charlotte, North Carolina, to continue his reign of terror. Masked agents raided a church. Charlotte-Mecklenburg school records show that over 27,000 students were absent the first school day following Border Patrol's arrival in the city. One U.S. citizen reported Border Patrol tried to arrest him twice within 5 minutes.

In my home State of Washington, we have seen green card holders taken, people who have lived in the United States for decades with deep roots in our communities and U.S. citizen family members. In Issaquah, Washington, agents kidnapped a mother outside her child's preschool and quickly deported her. This is not unique. Since Trump rescinded the practice of avoiding enforcement actions at sensitive locations, we have seen a daycare worker snatched in front of children in Chicago and a father arrested outside his child's preschool in Oregon.

Let's not forget that many care workers are immigrants. Among early educators, 26 percent, close to one-half million people, are immigrants. Many are being forced out of their jobs, whether it is through Trump's mass forced layoffs when he has abruptly cancelled entire categories of legal statuses or workers forced to step back from care work after a loved one's detention and deportation.

Trump's assault on our communities is not possible without the U.S. immigration incarceration system. Since Donald Trump took office, people in detention have skyrocketed to unprecedented levels with over 66,000 people incarcerated in immigration facilities. ICE plans to increase its capacity to detain an average of 107,000 people by the end of the year using $45 billion that was in the Republicans' big, bad betrayal bill.

How did Republicans finance that unprecedented spending?

They did it by stealing healthcare from 16 million Americans.

This is cruel and unnecessary. First, let's be clear that immigration is a civil matter, not a criminal matter. People are held pending immigration proceedings, and ICE itself has said that detention is not supposed to be punitive. ICE's own numbers show that 73 percent of those who have been detained have no criminal record and the vast majority of the remaining 27 percent have minor convictions, like traffic violations.

People are detained in horrific conditions. Facilities are overcrowded, and people are sleeping on the ground next to toilets. Folks are denied medical care. If the private prison companies running the facilities provide any protein in meals, it is often undercooked and, yes, sometimes bloody. Dinner is often served after midnight.

So it is no surprise that these conditions are so poor because about 90 percent of people who are imprisoned are imprisoned in for-profit facilities which have a record of cutting corners on essential services to reap profits. Trump has decimated oversight, including by illegally blocking Members of Congress from doing unannounced inspections.

That is why today, with Representative Ramirez and 124 Members as original cosponsors, we introduced my Dignity for Detained Immigrants Act, transformative legislation that would completely overhaul the system.

What is happening is not normal. We can't allow it to continue.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Mrs. Ramirez for her leadership.

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