Bill to Outlaw Wounding of Official Working Animals Act of 2025

Floor Speech

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Ms. JAYAPAL. Mr. Speaker, we also want to make sure that the work that we do in this body reflects the priorities of the American people. Once again, this bill is nothing but an attempt to distract the American people from Republicans' failure to lower prices.

This morning I went online and I looked at what gas prices are in my home State of Washington. They are over $6 for diesel and over $5 for regular unleaded. That is an increase of almost a buck just in the last couple of weeks.

I know what my constituents care about. It is the fact that they can't afford their gas. Childcare right now is around $21,000 per child in the State of Washington. Healthcare premiums have gone crazy since Republicans have refused to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits. What people are facing is a complete destruction of their ability to live decent lives.

Are we addressing any of that here?

At a townhall last week, I had a constituent stand up and tell me that he was a war veteran from the Afghanistan war. He was a sergeant in the United States Marines. He said he spent his entire life fighting in these forever wars. He doesn't want another one.

But we are not talking about any of that here. We are not even making sure that the President does what he is supposed to do and comes to Congress for authorization for this war.

In fact, we just heard that the Pentagon is putting forward a request for $200 billion more for this war. How on earth are we going to pay for that? It is absolutely ridiculous.

So I think that this is all about trying to go back to the old playbook of trying to vilify immigrants and trying to make people blame immigrants for everything that is wrong with their lives.

The reality is, instead of figuring out how we can stop immigration agents from murdering U.S. citizens on the street or arresting and imprisoning children, we are back to Republicans' favorite type of bill: Find a crime, blame an immigrant, make people deportable and inadmissible without requiring a conviction, deny them basic due process, rinse, and repeat.

By the way, for people who are listening, who are upset about the mass deportations that the Republicans do not want to talk about here because they are incredibly unpopular, this is the pipeline to those mass detentions and mass deportations. This is the way that DHS, a lawless ICE and CBP are able to just go out and pick up anybody and continue to detain and deport people, including U.S. citizens.

This one that is on the floor today is a new one, even for us. It is moving into the arena of harming animals.

Now, I am speaking as someone who has long been a champion of animal welfare. I have supported bills that protect animals and prevent inhumane treatment of them.

My dog, Otis, has been a loved and loving member of our family for 14 years. He is an incredibly resilient guy. Some of my constituents recognize him more than my spouse because he goes everywhere with us.

I take violence against animals seriously, and so do our immigration laws. The crime referenced in this bill requires someone to willfully and maliciously harm a dog or a horse. This is already a crime involving moral turpitude, which can render someone deportable or inadmissible from the country.

In 2018, the Board of Immigration Appeals made clear that the crime of animal fighting is a crime involving moral turpitude, and that is because there is a clear intent to harm the animal.

In addition to the binding precedent set by the Board of Immigration Appeals, the 9th and 10th Circuit Courts of Appeals also found that animal cruelty is a crime involving moral turpitude. This issue is already well covered under our immigration laws, and this bill is, once again, largely unnecessary.

If Republicans are concerned about cruelty to animals, why not look at Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem who shot and killed her 14- month-old dog, Cricket.

Unfortunately, this bill goes too far in eroding due process rights. Under current law, a person does not need to be convicted of a crime to be inadmissible. However, under most circumstances, you do need a conviction to be deportable.

Once again, as they have with so many other bills, my Republican colleagues do not require someone to be convicted of this crime to be deportable from the country. That means that a green card holder who has lived here for decades could be deported.

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Ms. JAYAPAL. That means that a green card holder who has lived here for decades could be deported from the country without even being convicted of a crime.

This bill was written in response to an incident where a 70-year-old man kicked a Customs and Border Protection agriculture detector dog at Dulles Airport. The incident was horrible, and no dog should ever be kicked or harmed. However, that man was tried and convicted in Federal Court before he was removed from the country underscoring how unnecessary this law is.

It has never been more important for people to have their day in court. Look at what is happening across the country, Mr. Speaker, as Federal immigration authorities terrorize American communities. We have seen residential communities tear-gassed without a care for the young children who have been affected. We have seen a teacher with work authorization arrested at the daycare where she works, inflicting irreversible harm on the little kids whom she cares for.

We have seen U.S. citizens brutalized and even killed by ICE and Border Patrol most recently in Minnesota. We have seen, again and again, how ICE has accused people of assaulting them only to find out that it was a lie.

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Ms. JAYAPAL. The Wall Street Journal just released an investigation finding that most accusations against U.S. citizens for attacking immigration agents were unsubstantiated. The right to being innocent until proven guilty should be something that every single one of us in this Chamber can agree to. It is a bedrock principle of fairness, of due process, and of the rule of law.

Republicans gave ICE tens of billions of dollars to continue the lawless assault on the American public. Republicans own this mess, but it is up to all of us to fix it. Republicans want to pass absurd legislation like this one that only makes the system worse, not better.

Mr. Speaker, oppose this bill.

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