[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 72 (Wednesday, April 30, 2025)]
[House]
[Pages H1767-H1772]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
TRUMP IMMIGRATION POLICIES
(Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 3, 2025, Mr. Takano
of California was recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the
minority leader.)
General Leave
Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may
have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and
include extraneous material in the Record.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from California?
There was no objection.
Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, I rise to address the House for a Special
Order hour with my Congressional Progressive Caucus colleagues. I do so
on the 100th day of the Trump administration, and I note that this is a
day when we received the news that our economy has contracted and that
we are witnessing confusion, chaos in our markets, and uncertainty
about our economic future.
We can also mark this day by stating that our country is in the midst
of a constitutional crisis.
The administration is disappearing individuals without due process in
defiance of court orders. They are ripping people from their homes and
communities, putting them on secretive flights, and sending them
overseas, including more than 280 individuals sent to the brutal CECOT
prison in El Salvador without so much as a hearing.
The Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the administration must
facilitate the return of one such man, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland
father, but the executive branch has ignored the highest Court in the
land, saying that their own views matter more.
Just last night, the President of the United States admitted in a
public interview that he could return Mr. Abrego Garcia if he wanted
to, but he is choosing not to. He has openly mused about sending
American citizens to El Salvador next because it always starts with
those without power, the most vulnerable, but it never ends there, and
that should terrify every American.
I want to take the opportunity to draw attention to another case that
has captured the public conscience, that of Andry Jose Hernandez
Romero, a 31-year-old gay Venezuelan makeup artist and asylum seeker
who was forcibly disappeared without due process.
Andry entered the United States legally, fleeing persecution for his
sexual orientation and political beliefs. He passed an initial asylum
screening and had no criminal record. Yet, without warning or due
process, he was forcibly removed to El Salvador and imprisoned in the
notorious CECOT facility.
What is the evidence against him? A couple of crown tattoos above the
names ``Mom'' and ``Dad,'' symbols of his love for his hometown's Three
Kings Day celebrations.
Andry's case exemplifies the dangers of unchecked executive power and
what happens when the rule of law is pushed aside.
I call on President Trump to free Andry.
There are so many others to talk about: students who have been
snatched off the streets, young American citizens kicked out without so
much as a hearing, and the list goes on and on.
I want to be clear that this is not just about immigrants. This is
bigger than that. If the government can violate the Constitution with
impunity in these cases, then it can do so anywhere to anyone.
To the Americans listening at home, I ask you: How would you feel if
masked men grabbed you in broad daylight and refused to show their ID?
I know I would be terrified, and I bet you would be, too.
Today, we will hear from a number of my Congressional Progressive
Caucus colleagues as we bring a spotlight to these injustices.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Escobar).
Ms. ESCOBAR. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Takano for yielding. I am so
grateful for his leadership and for bringing us together on the House
floor to talk about what is happening here in our country every day.
Americans are sounding the alarm about the crisis that our country is
in. It is not just an economic crisis, as we see our country sinking
very quickly into an economic crisis, which is being reflected in
Donald Trump's poll numbers. In fact, his sinking poll numbers are even
being reflected in the issue that many consider to be his strong suit
with the American people, which is immigration.
Americans are now realizing that Donald Trump's anti-immigrant
policies are targeting everyone in our country, including U.S.
citizens.
When Donald Trump eliminates due process for immigrants, whether it
is
[[Page H1768]]
for legal immigrants or students who are here with legitimate visas, he
is impacting due process for all of us.
When Donald Trump ignores an order from the Supreme Court to bring
back a wrongfully deported immigrant, he is violating the rule of law,
which impacts all of us.
Mr. Speaker, when Donald Trump sends immigrants to a gulag in a
foreign country, believe him when he tells you that he will be doing
this to U.S. citizens next. In fact, he has already begun deporting
U.S. citizen children.
Just today, in the House Judiciary Committee, as the Judiciary
Committee was marking up the reconciliation package, which,
unfortunately, many Republicans will just blindly approve, Judiciary
Committee Republicans refused to protect U.S. citizens from
deportation.
It is shocking, I know.
Here is the thing: We can have strong border security and a fair and
humane immigration system that works for our Nation. That is not what
Donald Trump is doing. He is acting like a tyrant, and he will keep
undermining our democracy, our country, and the rule of law as long as
compliant Republicans allow him to.
Will there be just four Republicans who will stand with us and their
constituents to protect the Constitution, the rule of law, and law and
order in this country? I hope so.
Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, I thank Representative Escobar for her
comments.
I am outraged to hear that Republicans on the Judiciary Committee
would not protect citizens from deportation. We are talking about
citizens.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Illinois (Mrs. Ramirez).
{time} 1900
Mrs. RAMIREZ. Mr. Speaker, fascism always demands a public enemy.
Through lies and scapegoating, the Trump administration has tried to
make immigrants the enemy. They have tried to convince us that the
problem isn't their abuses of power or the unchecked greed of
multinational corporations but it is immigrants.
In their 100 days in office, the Trump administration and Noem, the
Secretary of Homeland Security, have abused the power of the Department
of Homeland Security to pursue a campaign of persecution, of mass
incarceration, and of deportation.
Day after day, they have disregarded the authority of Congress, the
laws of the land, and the constitutional rights of residents, the
courts, due process, and every check and balance that protects us from
fascist authoritarians.
No one has been spared from their abusive authoritarian assault, not
United States citizens, children with cancer, not pregnant women, not
fathers with legal residency, not organ donors, not student activists,
not professors, not green card holders, not asylees, not DACA
recipients.
Trump and Noem have wasted millions of taxpayer dollars in their
criminal acts from a $200 million anti-immigrant ad campaign to $46
million paid to illegally detain people in offshore prisons to more
than $300 million to militarize and end parole and due process at our
borders. There is no end to how they will abuse their power, and we
have to say: Enough.
As I demanded yesterday in the Homeland Security Committee, Noem must
step down. We can't give one more dollar to this administration to
continue its unconstitutional, anti-immigrant, authoritarian agenda.
I will close with this: Today, Trump, Noem, and the administration
have made the immigrants the enemy. Tomorrow, it will be whoever they
deem undesirable.
Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, I thank Representative Ramirez for standing
up for the rule of law.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Carter.)
Mr. CARTER of Louisiana. Mr. Speaker, I rise today with great concern
regarding our First and Fifth Amendment rights. Our constitutionally
guaranteed freedom of speech and right to due process are under attack
by the Musk-Trump administration.
You don't have to like what someone says philosophically,
politically, or otherwise, but free speech is not based on what you
like or dislike or choose to hear or not hear; it is based on one's
ability to express themselves. It is not conditioned on what you like
to hear. Free speech is free speech.
We will not stand by while they violate the principles that form the
bedrock of our democracy. Right now, this administration is defying a
Supreme Court decision that ordered them to facilitate the return of an
individual who was deported without due process. Alongside others, he
was sent to an inhumane prison in a different country without a
hearing. This happened in the United States, violating his right to due
process. There are many individuals whose stories deserve to be told,
so today I am going to highlight just a few.
Last week, I led a bicameral codel to two ICE detention facilities in
Louisiana where Mahmoud Khalil, Rumeysa Ozturk, and Wendy Brito are
being held.
Mahmoud Khalil is a lawful permanent resident and Columbia graduate
student who was detained because of his participation in a peaceful
protest. I had an opportunity to sit and visit with him. He said,
without fear of contradiction: I am not anti-Semitic. I am not pro-
Hamas. I am simply concerned about my homeland and the treatment of the
people that are there.
Rumeysa Ozturk is a Ph.D. student detained because she wrote an op-ed
in her school newspaper.
Wendy Brito, a mother of three U.S. citizens, who may one day be U.S.
Senators. A U.S. citizen right here on our homeland, was deported
without giving her due process. Her lawyer was in the waiting room.
They would not let her have access to the lawyer. Then they added
insult to injury by saying she signed a waiver.
Who and what mother would not say, when asked: Do you want your
children to go with you versus being with some strangers would not opt
for that first option?
Ms. Brito simply said: What are you going to do with my children?
They said: Well, they can go with you. As a father, I would have made
the same decision, but her lawyer was in the other room begging for an
opportunity to stand in, and they would not give him or her an
opportunity to do so.
Arresting people who are in this country legally--people whose only
crimes have been to exercise their right to free speech--is an assault
on our civil liberties and our Constitution.
An attack on these individuals is an attack on all of us. Who is to
say what this ruthless administration will do next or who they will do
it to? Will it be your family member, your friend, or a coworker who is
taken without cause?
I am reminded of a quote from Angela Davis: ``If they come for me in
the morning, they will come for you in the night.''
We must all stick together and fight for the rights of our great
country, this great Constitution, the First Amendment right of free
speech, and the Fifth Amendment right of due process. We must continue
speaking up and fighting back against these tyrants and preserve our
Constitution.
Mr. Speaker, I am not sure if you found this funny or if you are
laughing at a joke that is on your phone, but this is serious business,
sir.
Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Louisiana for his
principled remarks about the importance of the rule of law in our
country and his enunciating that political dissent in our country is
not a crime.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Arizona (Ms. Ansari).
Ms. ANSARI. Mr. Speaker, last week, I traveled to El Salvador, along
with three of my colleagues, to see firsthand the chaos unleashed by
the Trump administration through its unconstitutional and illegal
deportations of U.S. residents to third-party countries.
I represent a beautifully diverse district in which 64 languages are
spoken and where families of immigrants like mine thrive. I have heard
more about this issue from my constituents than any other during my
time in Congress.
In El Salvador, we met with the U.S. Ambassador and demanded that the
Trump administration facilitate the release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia in
compliance with the 9-0, unanimous Supreme Court decision of the United
States and the lower Federal court judges.
Mr. Abrego Garcia and many other wrongfully deported individuals were
[[Page H1769]]
sent to El Salvador with no due process and no legal recourse just for
being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
It is outrageous and indefensible that the Trump administration
continues to defy a Supreme Court ruling to return this man to his
family. In fact, it is a full-blown constitutional crisis.
There are other people--including Andry Jose Hernandez Romero, a
makeup artist and legal asylum seeker, and Merwil Gutierrez, a teenager
who was mistakenly picked up by immigration enforcement--languishing in
El Salvador.
Now, the Trump administration is admitting to deporting a 2-year-old
U.S. citizen with cancer. It is cruel, it is despicable, and it is
totally illegal, no matter what Stephen Miller or Tom Homan may say.
These cases are not just about these specific people or children sent
on planes to foreign prisons by the U.S. Government. Our entire system
of justice hinges on the rights afforded to us by the Constitution, the
rights of due process, access to legal representation, and the ability
to be heard in a court of law.
It is a dark day for our democracy when the Federal Government
snatches people off of the streets, flies them out of the country
secretly in the dead of night, and sends them to a foreign prison to be
detained indefinitely with no legal recourse or chance to prove their
case.
Who is to say that it couldn't be you or me next? I will continue to
speak out for due process and our constitutional rights.
Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, I thank Representative Ansari. I want to
thank her for traveling with three other of our colleagues to El
Salvador last week. I know that she traveled at her own expense. I am
very proud that we have members of this caucus who care so deeply about
people who have been treated so unjustly. Nobody should be disappeared
out of our country without habeas corpus hearings.
I also thank Representative Carter for his efforts, along with, I
believe, other Members of Congress to visit the graduate students held
in a New Orleans jail.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Minnesota (Ms. Omar).
Ms. OMAR. Mr. Speaker, I am here today as a Representative of a
community that is deeply alarmed by the actions of this administration.
Just weeks ago, the Trump administration defied a unanimous--we
didn't think this was possible--but a unanimous Supreme Court order by
refusing to facilitate the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland
father wrongfully deported to a notorious prison in El Salvador.
Despite the Court's clear directive, the administration continues to
ignore the rule of law, undermining the very foundation of our
democracy.
In my own district, the situation is equally troubling. A graduate
student at the University of Minnesota was detained by ICE agents
without warning. Despite having no involvement in political activism,
he was taken from his home, held without immediate explanation, and had
his visa retroactively revoked. This action not only disturbed his
education but also instilled fear in our academic community.
These are not isolated incidents. Across the country, people are
being detained and deported without due process, often based on tenuous
and/or unverified allegations.
The administration's use of obscure laws, like the Alien Enemies Act
of 1798, to justify these actions is a blatant abuse of power. We must
ask ourselves: If the rights of noncitizens can be so easily
disregarded, whose rights will be next?
Our Constitution guarantees due process and equal protection under
the law to everyone in this country, not just citizens. If the
government can silence you, detain you, or deport you while defying
court orders, then none of our rights are safe. If we let this slide,
we are saying the Constitution is optional. It is not.
What we are seeing is authoritarianism creeping in through the
backdoor, one ignored ruling at a time.
My colleagues and I are ready to fight back with everything we have
got.
Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, the sign behind me says ``9-0.'' ``9-0'' is
the order of the Supreme Court. They ruled 9-0 that Kilmar Abrego
Garcia must be brought back or must be facilitated back into the
country. This 9-0 Supreme Court order is being defied by the President.
No one in our country, no person, no man, is above the law.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Washington (Ms.
Randall).
{time} 1915
Ms. RANDALL. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from California for
leading us in this Special Order hour today.
Mr. Speaker, fear, anger, terror, sadness, these are the emotions
that just scratch the surface of what my community and our immigrant
neighbors are feeling. Why should we expect anything less? This is
exactly what this administration wants: to force immigrants into the
shadows, to break their spirit, and to disrupt our communities.
When you come for immigrants, you come for small businesses. When you
come for immigrants, you come for our farmworkers and for our fish
processors. When you come for immigrants, you come for nurses, doctors,
and caregivers. When you come for immigrants, you come for the very
identity of what makes this country America.
Last week, I met with immigrants' rights advocates and toured the
Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma. The detainee population has
doubled in the last few months. The average time detained has extended.
Discretionary releases are now uncommon, even for detainees without
violent criminal records. Folks are being detained and disappeared for
nothing more than political speech.
Mr. Speaker, what this visit reaffirmed for me is that any
immigration policy rooted in hate and fueled by chaos doesn't make our
immigration system more efficient or safe; it overwhelms the system. We
don't fix a broken system by breaking people.
Most of our origin stories, even as Members of the House in this
body, begin as immigration stories. It is past time that all of us
remember that.
Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for her comments.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Rivas).
Ms. RIVAS. Mr. Speaker, I thank Congressman Takano for recognizing me
and for hosting this important discussion in front of the American
people.
Our country was founded on the values of life, liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness, but who are we as a country if we backtrack on
those founding values? We would not be the country that inspired our
parents, our neighbors, and our grandparents to make a dangerous and
brave journey in the hopes that their children will have a better life
than they did.
Everyone has a story that they can relate. Mine is about my mother,
who emigrated from Mexico in the 1960s. She raised me and my sister on
her own, taking multiple jobs to make ends meet. It was not until the
late 1980s when she finally got her green card. She was so happy, and I
remember feeling relieved because she was safe and could live in this
country without fear.
Today, that fear has returned. Donald Trump is blatantly pushing
aside the Constitution and the rule of law to deport anybody at will. I
am here because I am fighting for my mother and many like her who came
to this country in search of a better life. I am fighting so our
immigrant communities can, once and for all, live without fear that
their livelihoods would be taken away at a moment's notice.
I am fighting with my Congressional Progressive Caucus and
Congressional Hispanic Caucus colleagues against this administration's
attempts to strip away a person's right to due process.
Donald Trump is criminalizing people like Abrego Garcia and denying
him his due process. Yet, it is not just Abrego Garcia. This
administration is also deporting children.
Last week, this administration deported a 2-year-old child and a 4-
year-old child who are battling stage IV cancer, both of whom are U.S.
citizens. What is happening to Garcia and these children is a travesty,
and they need to come home.
Sending them without due process to countries like El Salvador and
Honduras is a shameful assault on our human rights and a betrayal of
the ideals that our country was founded on.
[[Page H1770]]
His policies are also unpopular across the country, and the polling
proves it. After 100 days, Donald Trump has the lowest approval rating
of any President in at least the past 80 years. The American people see
through his cruelty, and they are with us.
We need to confront the cruelty from this administration head on and
seek justice for all of those who have been unfairly targeted.
I stand united with my colleagues in stopping this administration and
holding this President accountable for his actions.
Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, I thank Representative Rivas for her
comments and bringing to light the tragic stories of children who are
citizens with cancer being deported from our country.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Tonko).
Mr. TONKO. Mr. Speaker, I thank Congressman Takano for bringing us
together this evening for a very important discussion.
Kilmar, Andry, Jefferson, Kevin: a devoted father married to an
American citizen, a makeup artist who faced persecution in his home
country because he is gay, a man with a valid work authorization and
pending asylum hearing, and a son of a government worker attacked for
his opposition to a corrupt regime.
These are just a few of the hundreds of men who have been sent to a
foreign prison with conditions so inhumane that El Salvador's Justice
Minister has said that the only way out is in a coffin.
These men came to our country, in many cases through approved legal
pathways, seeking a better life for themselves and their families. In
response, we sent them to another country without any due process to be
abused and tortured, and we are paying that government $6 million to do
so.
These are not deportations, but they are government-enforced
disappearances. They are illegal. They are horrific. They are the
tactics of a dictatorship, not a democracy.
We cannot let them get away with this. This is the red line that they
cannot be allowed to cross.
Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, I thank Representative Tonko for his
comments. I agree with the gentleman. This is a red line that cannot be
crossed. We cannot permit a President to defy a 9-0 order of the
Supreme Court. No person and no man is above the law.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from New Jersey (Mrs. Watson
Coleman), my tremendous colleague.
Mrs. WATSON COLEMAN. Mr. Speaker, I thank Representative Takano for
holding this Special Order. This is very important.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today because the Trump administration is
carrying out a campaign of reckless cruelty with zero accountability.
Last week, the home of a woman from Oklahoma was mistakenly targeted
by ICE agents. They broke into her home, forced her and her children
outside at gunpoint in their underwear, and proceeded to ransack their
home.
The people who ICE were looking for didn't even live there, but that
didn't stop them from traumatizing the current residents, confiscating
their life savings, and fleeing the scene without leaving any contact
information or instructions for how this innocent family could get
their belongings back, including their money.
More recently, over the past weekend, we learned that Trump
administration's police deported a 4-year-old American citizen who has
stage IV cancer, and then they lied about it. On Monday, Trump's
deportation czar claimed that the child's mother chose to bring her son
with her when she was deported without any kind of due process.
Let me be clear. That is another boldface lie. The truth is that this
woman did what any mom would do when faced with such a terrifying
situation. She tried desperately to protect her child. She pled with
the Trump's deportation police to let her contact her family to arrange
care for her son and make sure that he keeps receiving the medical
treatment that he desperately needs.
Yet, Trump's police said: No. They denied this basic right. They
would not let her call her family, nor her lawyer. As a result, her son
no longer has access to his lifesaving cancer treatment.
It is a confounding degree of evil that we are dealing with in the
Trump administration and this Republican-controlled Congress that fails
to find its spine and do the right thing for the people of this
country.
I truly cannot comprehend the heartlessness that is required to do
these things like this, and I am praying for all of the victims of this
administration's campaign of terror in my country.
Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, I thank Representative Watson Coleman for
informing the Nation about what happened earlier today with that family
in Oklahoma.
It strikes me that we are witnessing this evolution of this
administration's policies that began with: We are just going to deport
criminals.
It then evolved into disappearing people without hearings and
claiming that the people they were disappearing were criminals,
dangerous criminals, members of the Tren de Aragua gang.
They admitted that there were mistakes made, but now we are seeing
actual children who are citizens being spirited out of the country.
This ought to be concerning to all Americans. It is not about them
anymore. It is about us. It is about every single person who is in
danger of being treated in such a way that you have no way to say to a
judge: I am a citizen.
How can you say to a judge that you are a citizen or not a criminal
when you are not even allowed to have that hearing?
Mr. Speaker, I will now move on and yield to the gentlewoman from
Oregon (Ms. Hoyle).
Ms. HOYLE of Oregon. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding.
Mr. Speaker, when we took office, we swore an oath to support and
defend the Constitution. It was a promise to the American people that
we would uphold the law, protect their rights, and defend our
democracy.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was living legally in the United States,
was wrongfully disappeared to a horrific prison in El Salvador because
of an administrative error.
This week, U.S. citizens in Oklahoma were dragged out of their home
while ICE agents, with no warrant for them, took their phones, laptops,
and life savings, even though they weren't the suspects in question.
One of the most basic rights guaranteed in our Constitution is the
right to due process. The Due Process Clause in the Fifth Amendment and
14th Amendment demands that you cannot be deprived of life, liberty, or
property without the due process of law. That means a fair hearing, a
chance to be heard, and a chance to defend yourself in court. That is
the standard.
Mr. Speaker, our immigration system is broken, and I will work with
anyone in a bipartisan way to fix it. Yet, that is not what is
happening here.
Weaponizing fears and frustrations as a justification for interning
innocent people in a foreign prison is unacceptable and
unconstitutional. Everyone deserves due process in court with evidence
beyond a reasonable doubt. If we don't defend these rights now, who is
next: our neighbor, our family, or us?
Affording due process is not being soft on crime. It is the very
foundation of American justice to ensure that the rights enshrined in
our Constitution are guaranteed, as the Founders intended. Standing up
for the Constitution is not partisan. It is patriotic. It is our duty,
and we need to do it.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me time.
Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for standing up for
the rule of law.
Mr. Speaker, I remind my colleagues that, in this country, under our
Constitution, no one is above the law, not even the President. Our
President, at this very moment, is defying a 9-0 Supreme Court
decision.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Hawaii (Ms. Tokuda), my
colleague from the Aloha State.
Ms. TOKUDA. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong opposition to
President Trump's unlawful and unjust deportations to El Salvador.
Earlier this year, the administration invoked the Alien Enemies Act,
an 18th century wartime statute, to deport 137 Venezuelan men to a
notorious prison abroad. This archaic law is being exploited to bypass
our immigration system and deny individuals their most basic legal
protections.
[[Page H1771]]
{time} 1930
These deportations were not based on convictions or due process. They
are based on ancestry and suspicions--tattoos misidentified,
affiliations assumed, rights ignored.
The Supreme Court affirmed, by a 7-2 majority, these people deserve
due process under our Constitution.
For me and for Representative Takano, this strikes painfully close to
home.
During World War II, the same law was used to imprison over 120,000
Japanese Americans, including our families. My great-grandfather was
taken from his home, incarcerated without cause, solely because of his
ethnicity.
Now, we are seeing the same injustice unfold again. In communities
like Kona, Hawaii, a child was taken from his elementary school
classroom. Families are taken from their homes, and people live in
fear. Children miss school. Parents avoid lifesaving care and their
doctors. Faith communities grow quiet, not because of guilt but because
of government overreach.
Let us be clear. These individuals are our neighbors, workers,
students, and friends. They deserve dignity and due process, not
detention and deportation.
Sending people to foreign prisons without a trial, without rights,
and without hope is not only unconstitutional. It is un-American, and
it must stop.
Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to honor the oath we all took in
this very Chamber to uphold the Constitution, protect due process, and
defend the values that define our Nation.
Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, I thank Representative Tokuda for her
comments.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Chu), my
fellow colleague from southern California and good friend.
Ms. CHU. Mr. Speaker, this administration has thrown out the
Constitution and asserted that the President has king-like power to
arrest anybody in this country and deport them, even to a foreign
prison for life, with no due process.
Days ago, we learned they deported a 4-year-old child with stage IV
cancer and a 2-year-old American citizen.
We know that they are now going after Southeast Asian refugees from
Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. They came here due to the U.S. depending
on them as allies during the Vietnam war.
This was the case with Chanthon Bun, who fled to the U.S. with his
family to escape the Cambodian genocide. Like many refugees, Bun found
himself in an impoverished community and struggled to acclimate. He
later fell in with the wrong crowd and made a mistake as a teenager.
Bun has since served his time, and once granted parole, he has become a
leader in his community.
In Trump's eyes, Bun's rehabilitation doesn't matter. Trump is now
detaining and deporting Southeast Asian refugees who have had pauses on
their deportation orders for decades and are deeply tied to their
communities. Mr. Speaker, 15,000 of these refugees have deportation
orders and are now being deported as they do the right thing and report
for their ICE check-ins.
We will not stand for it. I will soon be reintroducing the Southeast
Asian Deportation Relief Act, which would prevent the administration
from deporting these refugees to countries where they have often never
lived and ensure that those who have already been deported can return
home to the U.S.
If the Trump administration can disappear immigrants to other
countries without due process or deport refugees to places they have no
memories of, we are all in danger.
Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, I thank Representative Chu for bringing to
light the story of an individual who has contributed much to his
community. I am very disappointed, alarmed, and, frankly, terrified by
the actions of this administration.
Mr. Speaker, I yield time to the gentleman from California (Mr.
Garcia), also a fellow Californian, a longtime friend of mine, and
somebody who I admire for his courage and initiative in leading a
recent delegation of four Members of Congress to the country of El
Salvador.
Mr. GARCIA of California. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Takano for giving
me this opportunity to speak about a topic that is really important
right now in our country.
Mr. Speaker, there is no issue right now that should concern
Americans more than the elimination and destruction of due process, not
just now for U.S. citizens but for people who are here whether it is a
legal status or because they have been invited to this country to apply
for asylum.
I want to go ahead and speak a little bit more about Andry Romero,
this young gentleman right here. He is a gay hairstylist and makeup
artist who came to the United States with an asylum appointment. The
United States Government gave Andry an appointment to show up to the
border so that he could claim asylum using our process that we created.
He shows up with his appointment. What happens? He gets interrogated
through the process. His initial screening is positive, and then he
essentially gets taken at the border from that screening directly to a
prison in El Salvador, a country he knows nothing about, in a process
that eliminated his right through the court and due process asylum
system that we have created in this country.
What kind of America is this where we are doing this to people who
are seeking asylum? We are sending them to a foreign prison.
I note that Andry's family describes him as someone who is sweet,
kind, and gentle, yet we are sending him to a notorious prison in a
very vulnerable position.
I also want to note that an agent said that he has some tattoos. Yes,
he has a crown tattoo reflective of a festival back in his home city
and state in Venezuela. It has nothing to do with gangs. He has never
been convicted of anything to do with gangs.
Because an ICE agent, who was, by the way, a disgraced former police
officer, made these claims, Andry is now in a foreign prison, and his
family and his lawyers have not heard anything about him in weeks.
I did go to El Salvador to advocate for the release of not just
Kilmar, who has been mandated by the Supreme Court to come back, but
also for Andry. We told Andry's story to the Ambassador in El Salvador.
It was the first time he had heard his story. After the meeting, he
made a request to the government in El Salvador to do a welfare check
for the first time on Andry.
We have yet to hear anything about how he is doing, his condition, if
he is alive, or where he is.
This is a disgrace by President Trump, Secretary Rubio, Secretary
Noem, and everyone involved in this process. We demand to know if he is
healthy, if he is okay, and where he is, and that he be given the right
to come back to the United States so that he can go through the process
that we asked him to go through before we kidnapped him and sent him to
a prison in El Salvador. We must do better in this country.
Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from California
(Mr. Garcia) for the purpose of a colloquy.
Representative Garcia, I had not heard the story about your request
to the Ambassador to do a welfare check.
This is one picture of Andry Hernandez. I have seen other pictures of
him, other photographs. It is hard for, I think, anyone who looks at
these photographs to believe that Andry is a dangerous member of the
Tren de Aragua criminal gang.
Here is the other fact that was just mentioned. He has never once
been at large in the U.S. territory, any part of the U.S. Government,
or the Continental United States. From the very beginning, when he
crossed the border, he was in custody. He has never been out of
custody. He has never once posed any danger. He arrived with papers
that show, from his native Venezuela, that he has no criminal record.
My understanding not only was that he was seeking asylum from
Venezuela because of his sexual orientation but also because he would
not comply with the authoritarian regime there.
Is that your understanding, as well?
Mr. GARCIA of California. Absolutely. I think that it is a shame that
someone fleeing persecution for who they are and then given an
appointment by us, the United States, is then sent to a foreign prison.
Mr. TAKANO. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Garcia for traveling to El
Salvador on his own resources and to our colleagues who spent their own
resources
[[Page H1772]]
because this House of Representatives will not do oversight over the
overreach of this administration, will not do oversight over the
dereliction of constitutional responsibility of this administration, an
administration that was defying a 9-0 Supreme Court order to facilitate
the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
There is another compelling case we have before us. The 280 other
individuals who are in CECOT prison, the government has kept those
names secret. The press and others have had to do a lot of sleuthing to
identify individuals who have been sent down there. For all we know,
there could be citizens among those folks. We don't know because they
have never been able to talk to a judge.
Mr. GARCIA of California. That is right.
Mr. TAKANO. They have never been able to defend themselves against
charges that they are Tren de Aragua criminals or otherwise dangerous
criminals.
This is a travesty. I think all Americans should be outraged. All
Americans should be afraid for themselves. We have now seen, in just
recent days, that we have moved from noncitizens to citizens being sent
out of this country.
Mr. Speaker, I want to say that, over the last hour, the American
public has heard directly as Members of Congress came to this hallowed
floor to talk plainly about the grave constitutional crisis unfolding
in our country. We have heard the names Kilmar Abrego Garcia and Andry
Hernandez Romero. We have spoken of students taken off streets, court
orders cast aside, and a supermax prison that now holds victims of
abuse.
These are not isolated incidents. They are evidence of a pattern, a
government operating outside the law, outside the Constitution, outside
the decision of a Supreme Court that has ruled 9-0 that this
administration must facilitate the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a
government that believes that it can disappear people without charges,
ignore the judiciary, and turn the Constitution into a suggestion
rather than a safeguard.
Mr. Speaker, this body must exert its collective conscience. This is
not who we are, and it must not be who we become. The American people
are beginning to wake up. They are hungry for accountability from our
government and courage from Congress.
I promise this. This is not the end of our voices. It is only the
beginning.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Members are reminded to refrain from
engaging in personalities toward the President.
____________________