The United States Represents Hopeful New Beginnings

Floor Speech

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Mrs. RAMIREZ. Mr. Speaker, I am proudly on this House floor going to talk about what brings me to this place.

Yes, I am the Congresswoman of Illinois' Third Congressional District. I am also the proud daughter of Guatemalan immigrants. I am a citizen by birthright. I am the wife of an incredible man who until recently was a DACA recipient, a Dreamer, and Congresista from a welcoming city, State, and district.

We know the story of our Nation wouldn't be complete without the joy, without the sweat, and without the struggles and resilience of those who, whether a couple of generations ago or 1 year ago, came to this country in search of safety, security, and opportunity.

Whether arriving through the southern border like my mother did 43 years ago or welcomed by the Mother of Exiles, the Statue of Liberty, like the ancestors of so many Members of Congress that I serve with, including the man in the Oval Office, our country has represented hopeful new beginnings for so many. Yet, too many have forgotten these histories.

As this country approaches the 250th anniversary of its founding, I rise during Immigrant Heritage Month asking us to reflect on this country's history, on this country's story, our progress and our failures, and our enduring but not yet fulfilled commitment to the principles of liberty and justice for all.

When a government fails to secure these rights and liberties for all people, regardless of legal status, origin, nationality, religion, or economic condition, it is, in fact, the responsibility of Members of Congress to challenge and transform systems that deny our communities dignity and justice.

I am clear that we have not yet fully realized our country's founding ideals.

The policies passed by this body and the powers seized by Trump's administration have created barriers and hardships for asylum seekers, for refugees, and all immigrant communities, including conditions that undermine internationally recognized human rights and constitutional protections.

When the administration is unwilling to uphold our commitments to human rights and obligations under the Constitution, Members of Congress in this body must act. We must meet the moment, and we must legislate. Because we know that immigrant communities make significant social, cultural, economic, and civic contributions to our country, strengthening and enriching our collective future.

The 250th anniversary of America serves not only as a commemoration but also as a choice point. We can choose to honor the contributions of immigrants by bringing 11 million people out of the shadows. We can choose to recognize our shared commitment to never again turn our backs on those seeking refuge and safety. We can choose to create pathways to citizenship for DACA recipients, who have been in this country since the age of 2 who know no other country other than this one as their own, and those that are TPS holders and in mixed-status families.

We can choose to renew our commitment to building a more inclusive, equitable, and united future for all who call the United States home, or we can allow Trump and this administration to continue terrorizing our communities, denying relief, violating protections, and certainly separating the families that my colleague just a moment ago bragged about being the party of families.

Here is the thing: I know where I stand, and I know where Trump, Noem, and now Markwayne, Homan, Miller, and Republicans in Congress stand. Trump and his cronies want to define who gets to be American and who is not American enough for them. He wants to define who is worthy of stability, of safety, of security, of opportunity, and who gets to be included in our Nation's founding ideals.

I, on this House floor, reject his white supremacist, xenophobic, bigoted agenda. It is important for us as Members of Congress to continue to fight for the opportunity that this Nation represents for so many of us like the opportunity to buy the first pair of shoes for your children, the opportunity to receive an education, to get a family-sustaining job, to establish a small business, and, for me, to become the very first Latina in the entire Midwest to serve in Congress.

I am the daughter of Maria Elvira Ramirez Guerra, a ``powerful''; ``poderosa'' woman ``that fought for me''; ``que lucho por mi,'' and carried that legacy that I get to carry now every single day in these Halls of Congress.

For us on Immigrant Heritage Month and in this Special Order hour, it is important as Members of Congress, those of us who are unapologetically children of immigrants, to remind everyone that our experiences, that the experience of refugees, that the experience of immigrants are also part of this Nation.

We belong, and we will not let anyone tell us that we are not the inheritors of the promise of America, just like so many of my colleagues' ancestors were for them.

Today, I say no bans, no walls, no raids, no kidnappings, no masked agents terrorizing our communities, no military attacking our neighbors, and no authoritarians in the Oval Office. ``Period''; ``Punto.''

Mr. Speaker, I will yield to some of my colleagues who will recognize and uplift the stories of the immigrant communities they represent and hold President Trump and Republicans accountable for the continued attacks on our immigrant communities.

Tokuda).

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Mrs. RAMIREZ. Mr. Speaker, I want to echo something that Ms. Tokuda said that I often remind my colleagues at Homeland Security as they continue to vilify immigrants: Unless you are indigenous, or you were forced to come here, you, too, are an immigrant. Whether your family came in the 1800s or the early 1900s, we must not forget that this country is built by immigrants. Yet, so many people have such a short memory of history.

Immigrants are, in fact, the story of this country. Jayapal).

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Mrs. RAMIREZ. Mr. Speaker, who are we as a nation? I thank Congresswoman Jayapal for powerfully reminding us that we cannot talk about having ideals and being a country that stands up for children and opportunity, and continue to dismiss those who contribute every single day in making that reality.

To continue this conversation around the contributions and the impact that immigrants make every single day in this Nation, I yield to the gentlewoman from Arizona (Mrs. Grijalva).

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Mrs. RAMIREZ. Mr. Speaker, I now yield to the gentlewoman from Michigan (Ms. Tlaib), one of my colleagues who has been at the forefront, really pushing back on all the terror that we are seeing around the country, whether it is in detention, whether it is in the abductions that are happening on the ground, or if it is at check-ins and making sure that people feel safe to go to court.

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Mrs. RAMIREZ. We are a nation of immigrants, and, unfortunately, many of our colleagues have forgotten that.

I do wonder if their grandparents when they came to this country, whether they were 5, whether they were 12, whether they were 17, if they were alive today, what would they say about their grandchildren that forgot the struggle and the challenges and what they needed when their grandparents came to this country.

I wish to take a moment to honor people who exemplify the power of immigrant heritage as so many of my colleagues have done today in our Special Order hour, because I know that we have a President who has done everything in his power to vilify the immigrant community, to call them criminals, to call them all sorts of other names, to negate their humanity, and forget about the names, the faces of women, of children, of hardworking people that, in fact, contribute to this community, to this country every single day. Honoring Dr. Gladys Fatima Marquez

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Mrs. RAMIREZ. Today, I rise to honor Dr. Gladys Fatima Marquez. Gladys is a high school bilingual English language learners teacher with over 20 years of classroom experience. She is also on the National Education Association's executive committee. She is a member and a past chair of the NEA Hispanic Caucus.

Gladys is the proud granddaughter of an immigrant from Zacatecas, Mexico. Her grandfather was a railroad worker on the Rock Island for 10 years before he was able to bring his family from Zacatecas in the 1960s.

Gladys' mother came here at the age of 13 and struggled to feel as though she belonged, especially at school. She, like thousands of other immigrant students, left school to join the workforce, taking a minimum wage factory job.

Her mother's experience inflamed her life's passion. Gladys worked to ensure every student believes in themselves, in their heritage, in who they are, and that they know that they can, in fact, achieve their dreams.

In addition to changing the world one child at a time, Gladys is a fierce advocate and defender of our immigrant neighbors. She has organized teach-ins at immigration detention centers, humanitarian missions to shelters at the border, and she has helped organize massive marches in protest of the national policy leading to separation of immigrant families and the incarceration of immigrant children. She lobbied and led efforts to support DACA recipients, and she has helped facilitate countless know-your-rights clinics.

On behalf of Illinois' Third Congressional District, I commend Dr. Gladys Fatima Marquez for her commitment to ensure that every member of our community, from our students and our immigrant neighbors, know that they belong.

Mr. Speaker, I thank Gladys. Honoring Shaiska Malca

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Mrs. RAMIREZ. Mr. Speaker, I also rise to honor Shaiska Malca, a constituent of the Illinois Third Congressional District and an educator, children's book author, and entrepreneur.

Shaiska is a proud Panamanian immigrant and vice president of the DuPage Hispanic Alliance.

Inspired by her own multicultural family and her mother, who had her own impressive career in education, Shaiska founded Pura Vida Talk to nurture bilingualism in our communities.

Pura Vida Talk empowers children to embrace multiculturalism and build bridges across our communities.

Her work to share her culture and language encourages children across Illinois' Third Congressional District and beyond to become global citizens who appreciate and celebrate diversity; all while they are being equipped with the invaluable skill of bilingualism, a skill that I think is a superpower and more people should seek.

On behalf of Illinois' Third Congressional District, I commend Shaiska Malca for reminding us of the strength we can find in connecting to our roots, our language, and our heritage.

I thank and congratulate Shaiska for her work. Protecting All Children

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Mrs. RAMIREZ. Mr. Speaker, as we get closer to the end of the Special Order hour, I want to go back to the children because in the previous Special Order hour, my colleagues to the right talked a lot about children. They talked about protecting children, protecting humanity, protecting family, and protecting the fiber of what it is to be an American.

While I sigh because I sense the hypocrisy that came from that Special Order hour, I do know that growing up, I, in fact, was taught that we take care of the children and families in our community not just by words but through action. I learned that we must honor our shared humanity to ensure that children and families, in fact, get to thrive.

But right now, we are living in times where too many children and families are living the indignity and the trauma of inhumane processing centers, inhumane detention facilities, and family separation.

Mr. Speaker, since the start of the Trump administration, at least 50 people have died in ICE detention. More than 6,200 children--children-- have been arrested by ICE at traffic stops, home raids, routine check- in appointments, bus stops, hospitals, and airports. More than 100,000 children, including U.S. citizens, have been separated from their families through the Trump administration.

Mr. Speaker, these aren't just numbers. Every one of them is a beloved child that is being denied the ability to live a fulfilling life, a life where they get to really imagine who they can be.

I saw this terror and trauma firsthand when I visited Steven, my 14- year-old constituent with autism, and his father, Victor, who spent more than 60 days in Dilley's processing facility after being taken at an immigration check-in.

I saw it as he hugged me and he begged me to tell him that ICE would not detain him again and threaten him that he would never see his mother again as they did in that detention facility.

Mr. Speaker, I know the pain that families separated by a cruel, inhumane immigration system endure. Do you know why? It is because I watched as so many people around the world watched Kevin, my 18-year- old U.S. citizen constituent with stage IV terminal colon cancer cry, ``Mama, Mama,'' as he was finally reunited with his mother and father. His parents had been detained for 1 whole month in Arizona at a detention facility after they had asked for a humanitarian visa to come see their child one last time. You see, Kevin, after we finally were able to get his parents released, died hours after finally seeing his parents for one last time.

I think of Ofelia, my 15-year-old constituent, whose life was cut short by a rare and aggressive form of cancer, but she continued to fight one more battle. She fought to have her father's order of deportation canceled, ensuring he would no longer live in fear. You see, she testified in court for her father, but less than 3 days later, Ofelia lost her battle to cancer.

Mr. Speaker, I get emotional because there is a hypocritical party who talks about children and families and standing up for them, but for some reason, Ofelia, Kevin, and Steven are not the kind of children they are willing to stand up for. They are United States citizen children, by the way.

Because I refuse to accept that we must endure these atrocities, we must reject the cruelty that is robbing our children and families of their future. Instead, we should be doing everything we can to ensure that children like Ofelia, like Steven, and like Kevin have everything they need to thrive.

Instead, we have children, until their dying moment, fighting for the livelihood of their parents. It is why I have said in the Committee on Homeland Security--and I am going to say it on this House floor--that we must abolish ICE. We must end immigrant detention, and we have to dismantle the Department of Homeland Security that under the premise of protecting us from domestic terrorism has abused our civil rights every single day and has killed U.S. citizens and more than 50 people this past year.

It is why I encourage my colleagues to join me as a cosponsor of H.R. 7190, the Melt ICE Act, as a meaningful step forward. The reality is that I can't have colleagues here saying that all people are created equal, but somehow immigrants don't fit that definition.

I cannot stand here and hear a party talk about being pro-family but deny the livelihood for so many families.

Mr. Speaker, we have been talking about this fourth anniversary of the Dobbs decision, but I want to talk to you about what is happening to pregnant women in detention right now. For the party that says that they want to protect unborn life at all costs, why is it that immigrant women in detention don't fit that definition?

We must confront a painful but necessary truth: DHS' violence and immigration enforcement have denied immigrants the right to personhood. Immigration detention denies people access to reproductive healthcare and represents forms of government control over immigrant bodies.

Do you know how I know this? I know this because of a report that at least a dozen pregnant girls, some who are as young as 13 years of age, and at least half of whom got pregnant because they were raped, are being held right now in a facility in San Benito, Texas, funded by American taxpayer dollars; and a report that at least 400 pregnant women were deported between January 2025 and February 2026.

It is critical that we acknowledge that immigrant and reproductive justice is interconnected. Both immigrant and reproductive justice is rooted in a shared struggle against the structural systems of racism, xenophobia, sexism, homophobia, trans phobia, and economic oppression that police bodies and restrict bodily autonomy.

We must affirm the dignity and humanity of all people, including our immigrant neighbors, and condemn any policies that treat people as unworthy or inadequate of healthcare and fundamental rights or bodily autonomy.

Mr. Speaker, as I think about where we are in this precise moment, I want to invite my colleagues to remember what we said are the founding ideals of this country, because we cannot talk about standing up for injustice and continue to fund the injustice we are seeing around the country when it comes to our immigrant communities.

It is why I thank my colleagues who joined today's Special Order honoring Immigrant Heritage Month, and I want to close with this message: The question isn't whether change is possible. It is whether we have the courage to demand it. I cannot understand how some people here can think it is acceptable to terrorize children and then say that they are the ones fighting for children in the same sentence.

Shame on every person in this country who wants to lock up children in cages, who wants to lock up children and separate them from their loved ones and their communities. Shame on those who are willing to deny children air, sun, play, laughter, joy, and every single thing a little one needs to be able to thrive.

Mr. Speaker, President Mandela said: ``There can be no keener revelation of a society's soul than the way in which it treats its children.''

This House has to reckon with the reality that when it comes to immigrant children, you should be ashamed of yourself in the way that you are operating. Incarcerating children is an evil, morally bankrupt practice that calls into question any commitment our Nation claims to have about their preciousness.

We must unleash our collective outrage. We must demand that no other children experience what Steven, what Liam, and the more than 3,800 children detained by ICE have endured.

So let's demand an end to mandatory detention, to private detention facilities that are profiting off of the pain of our children, to family detention, to warehouse detention, and to the profiting off our pain by corporate billionaires and campaign donors to the President.

And may we remember that every child is our child, and a fight for affordable housing, universal healthcare, climate resilience, humane immigration reform, thriving wages, labor rights is our fight, as well.

I reject a world where, during Immigrant Heritage Month, Palestinians in need of medical care cannot get visas to access care in the United States; where children grieve detained fathers on Father's Day; where deported sons are tortured in prisons in El Salvador; where children are held in U.S. for-profit detention centers; or where a mother in Durango, Mexico, cries in the lap of her dying 18-year-old son after being separated by a cruel and inhumane immigration system.

I refuse to accept that we must endure these atrocities. The suffering is too great. The pain is too great to bear.

So instead, Mr. Speaker, let us move forward with a loving wisdom that we are, in fact, precious and beloved; that we are bound together; that we belong to one another; and that every single child, regardless of legal status, is our child.

And may we honor our history by recognizing the human rights and constitutional protections afforded to all in this Nation and all those who seek refuge and protection.

I am ready to build that world together today, and to do so let's melt ICE, let's dismantle DHS because, frankly, Mr. Speaker, anything less is unacceptable.

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