Horrific Ice Abuses
Floor Speech
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Mr. ESPAILLAT. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to forcefully speak against the Trump administration's horrific ICE abuses and to demand accountability for the deaths of 45 individuals who have died within the custody of DHS since the start of 2025.
Mr. Speaker, 2025 was the deadliest year for ICE detention in two decades with 37 total deaths. Already in 2026, eight more individuals have died, including the murders of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti. The American public is outraged at the brutality of ICE, and they demand accountability.
According to polls, 76 percent of Americans, including 79 percent of Latinos, have seen the video footage of the murder of Renee Nicole Good. Mr. Speaker, 57 percent of Americans, both Democrats and Republicans, disapprove of the way ICE is enforcing immigration laws.
Put simply, ICE is out of control. The number of people with no criminal records being detained is 16 times greater than in previous administrations. Mr. Speaker, 92 percent of individuals recently held in ICE detention have no criminal conviction whatsoever.
More than 170 U.S. citizens have been wrongfully detained at raids and protests. More than 20 of them were held incommunicado for a specific period of time without being able to call their loved ones or an attorney.
DHS is now claiming they can enter anyone's home without a warrant signed by a judge, clearly ignoring the Fourth Amendment of our Constitution. A recent memo distorting the truth was circulated to our offices.
Still, congressional Republicans continue to fund this rogue agency without restraint. Congress already gave ICE $75 billion through the 2025 reconciliation bill.
They paid for the slush fund by cutting healthcare and nutrition assistance while giving tax cuts to rich millionaires and billionaires. This Chamber has decided to continue funding for ICE without any accountability whatsoever.
As we begin negotiating to fund DHS for the rest of the year, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus is unified in demanding real accountability provisions, including requiring ICE agents to identify themselves, prohibiting agents from wearing masks during enforcement, restricting the use of deadly force, strengthening hiring and training standards, enforcing humanitarian standards in ICE custody, and protecting sensitive locations.
Members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and the Congressional Progressive Caucus stand united in opposition to giving ICE one more cent without meaningful reform. In fact, I think ICE should be dismantled altogether. We are finalizing a bill that would do just that. It would rescind the agency's funding and rebuild it from the ground up.
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Mr. ESPAILLAT. Garcia).
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Mr. ESPAILLAT. Clarke).
Ms. CLARKE of New York. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from New York, Mr. Adriano Espaillat, for yielding.
Mr. Speaker, I rise on this day in opposition to ICE, CBP, and any others that are added to this Federal militia that is supposed to be part of the administration of immigration in the United States of America. I also rise in remembrance of all those innocent lives its agents and enforcers have stolen.
For 1 painful year under the Trump administration, this rogue agency has engaged in an unrestrained crusade of cruelty against our migrant neighbors and the places they call home, all powered by the $85 billion and counting hand-delivered to them by Republicans in Congress and their overlord in the White House, all conducted with immunity granted not by law but by lawlessness.
ICE agents are in our streets, where they are out every day kidnapping, trafficking, torturing, and, indeed, even murdering immigrant Americans and American citizens in the cold and hidden recesses of their detention centers, where atrocities beyond our wildest nightmares are occurring without cessation.
I am speaking of atrocities like the death of Jean Wilson Brutus at the Delaney Hall Detention Center, who passed away from a medical event while under the careless and unconcerned watch of ICE.
The title of ICE's press release following the tragedy?
``Criminal illegal alien passes away at University Hospital following medical emergency at Delaney Hall Detention Facility.''
How callous. How sick.
In one sentence, these twisted individuals reveal the systemic rot and culture of inhumanity that is inherent in ICE operations.
It is heartbreaking to know that Mr. Brutus' death was not an isolated tragedy. There have been 45 deaths and counting under Donald Trump's tyranny.
In what moral nation would the penalty for seeking a better life for yourself or your neighbors be a terrible death?
In what decent society would the government deploy propaganda to convince the masses that its victims deserved their fate?
Catching an ICE agent in a bad mood should not warrant capital punishment. Being undocumented should not be a death sentence.
Hear me when I say that ICE is a rogue entity incapable of doing its duty and incapable of re-earning the public trust that it has betrayed. It is an existential danger to public safety, American decency, and the American Dream.
Mr. Speaker, if there is a single revelation to emerge from this abyss of wickedness, let it be that our immigration apparatus needs bold and systemic change, and may that change be a system centered in compassion, not cruelty; entrusted to competent officers, not kidnapping traffickers and killer thugs, and bent toward justice, not broken by ICE.
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Mr. ESPAILLAT. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire as to how much time is remaining.
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Mr. ESPAILLAT. Morrison).
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Mr. ESPAILLAT. Randall).
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Mr. ESPAILLAT. Mr. Speaker, I now yield to the gentleman from California (Mr. Takano).
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Mr. ESPAILLAT. Mr. Speaker, I now yield to the gentlewoman from Vermont, Becca Balint.
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Mr. ESPAILLAT. Mr. Speaker, I now yield to the gentlewoman from Oregon, Val Hoyle.
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Mr. ESPAILLAT. Mr. Speaker, I now yield to the gentleman from Texas, Joaquin Castro.
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Mr. ESPAILLAT. Mr. Speaker, I now yield to the gentlewoman from Illinois, Delia Ramirez.
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Mr. ESPAILLAT. Mr. Speaker, I now yield to the gentlewoman from Michigan, Rashida Tlaib.
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Mr. ESPAILLAT. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire as to the time remaining.
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Mr. ESPAILLAT. Mr. Speaker, you have heard from many of our colleagues, members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, and other Members representing the State of Minnesota, the State of Illinois, the State of Michigan, and others.
The Congressional Hispanic Caucus has presented a policy position on DHS. The Members voted on that position, approved it, and it is the following:
We propose to suspend ICE and CBP immigration enforcement actions in Minnesota. We also propose to end warrantless stops. We also want to suspend indiscriminate arrests and militarized tactics against civilians nationwide.
Allow the agency to continue legitimate statutory enforcement, focused on serious public safety threats. This includes, obviously, the immediate protections against the detention and targeting of U.S. citizens. That is right, Mr. Speaker. This agency has been rampantly arresting not just green card holders, TPS recipients, Dreamers, moms, and dads, but also U.S. citizens.
We also call to redirect the $75 billion OBBB enforcement funding away from mass detention and quota-driven arrests toward humane community safety and affordability concerns.
This includes independent investigations into the deaths in DHS detention. As I said earlier, many people have died while in DHS custody.
We want to deliver accountability by advancing comprehensive legislation to unmask ICE agents. No ICE agent should be anonymous, without a first name, a last name, and a shield number. We want to mandate body cameras with strong protocols; protect sensitive locations, including houses of worship, schools, and hospitals; and restrict the use of deadly force.
We also want to enforce humanitarian standards in ICE and CBP custody, ban military-grade equipment, strengthen civil rights, and the inspector general's oversight.
We want to protect whistleblowers and return Border Patrol where they should be, at the border. These are the proposals that have been adopted by the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.
Again, Mr. Speaker, the country is alarmed. Our citizenship is imperiled with these aggressive actions by ICE. Our citizens are being hurt. Green card holders have gone underground. Our economy is suffering because of these brutal practices.
Let's dismantle ICE. Let's take a look at these best practices, and let's move forward as one United States of America.
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