[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 126 (Wednesday, July 23, 2025)]
[House]
[Page H3566]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           PUSHING BACK AGAINST ICE'S AUTHORITARIAN OVERREACH

  (Ms. Ansari of Arizona was recognized to address the House for 5 
minutes.)
  Ms. ANSARI. Mr. Speaker, I want you to imagine for a moment that a 
person is going to the grocery store, grabbing coffee, or picking their 
child up from school.
  Instead of running errands or waiting for the school bell like usual, 
that individual is surrounded by masked men who scream at them, shove 
them to the ground, threaten them with weapons, and throw them into the 
back of a car.
  People are calling out for help, asking where that person is being 
taken. Authorities refuse to answer. The person has no idea where they 
are going, who these people are, or when or if they will ever see their 
family again.
  Mr. Speaker, imagine if you, or worse, your child, experienced the 
terror, the fear, and the blind pain of being kidnapped off the street.
  For many of my constituents, this is a horrific reality that they are 
dealing with every single day. ICE is terrorizing our communities. They 
are kidnapping people off of the streets, tearing families apart, 
and destroying futures to meet insane daily quotas enacted by Donald 
Trump.

  Just a few weeks ago, Republicans in Congress passed a massive budget 
that funnels billions of new dollars to ICE. This money makes ICE the 
largest domestic police force in the United States with more resources 
than dozens of militaries around the entire world.
  This funding is unprecedented, and it is a free pass for ICE to ramp 
up Trump's cruel and inhumane mass deportation policies.
  They are already building concentration camps in Florida where they 
are threatening to lock up legal immigrants and Latinos from across the 
country. I have visited facilities like this.
  On May 29, I went to the Eloy Detention Center just outside my 
district. I met with women who wanted to and, frankly, were desperate 
to share their stories with me.
  One was a green card holder who had been pulled over for a traffic 
stop. When they learned of her status, they stripped her of her green 
card and threw her into ICE detention without another thought. She had 
been trying to reach her family for months.
  Another woman told me a story about a guard taking all of the women 
out into the blazing Arizona heat. He forced them to march in circles 
for hours without water. One woman fainted and needed medical 
attention.
  While they marched, the guard yelled at them: This is the price of 
the American Dream.
  It should not matter who these women are. It should not matter 
whether they are citizens, legal residents, or undocumented people 
trying to make a life for themselves.
  It is shameful and embarrassing for our country that we would treat 
any human being like this. The detention centers and the facilities in 
this country are atrocious. They have absolutely zero oversight 
mechanisms in place.
  More than a month later, after formally inquiring to the Department 
of Homeland Security and ICE about the conditions that I saw firsthand, 
I have yet to receive a response.
  People are being harassed. They are being dehumanized. They are being 
abused.
  Last weekend, I tried to return to Eloy to meet with several 
constituents of mine who are detained there.
  I wanted to meet with a woman named Yari who has chronic lymphocytic 
leukemia. She has been detained at Eloy since February and has lost 55 
pounds while in detention. She needs help.
  I also hoped to meet with a man who has been coughing up blood for 
weeks.
  Lastly, I wanted to meet with a 35-year-old woman with a kidney 
infection who says her antibiotics are not working and her condition is 
worsening.
  Even after ICE put in place new protocols to make it more difficult 
for us to do our job and our oversight work, we tried to follow their 
new rules. I gave them ample notice of my visit and a list of 
constituents that I hoped to meet with. They let us know that our visit 
was approved.
  Then less than 24 hours before I was supposed to make the trip, they 
changed their minds and said that my meeting with my constituents was 
denied.
  ICE is leaving families without answers and human beings without 
care. They are doing it, regardless of whether people are undocumented, 
legal residents, or even American citizens.
  They are splitting up parents by sending them to different detention 
facilities and then making children navigate the funds for a lawyer and 
basic survival.
  If I cannot get answers as a U.S. Congresswoman, how is anyone else 
in my district supposed to? Any one of us could be next.
  I will always stand with and fight for our immigrant communities. I 
will do everything I can to push back against Trump's authoritarian 
overreach.

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