[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 202 (Wednesday, December 3, 2025)]
[House]
[Pages H5014-H5020]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
FIGHTING DHS IMMIGRATION RAIDS
(Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 3, 2025, Mrs.
Ramirez of Illinois was recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of
the minority leader.)
General Leave
Mrs. RAMIREZ. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members
may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and
include extraneous material on the subject of my Special Order hour.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Onder). Is there objection to the
request of the gentlewoman from Illinois?
There was no objection.
Mrs. RAMIREZ. Mr. Speaker, as a Chicagoan, I know firsthand the
terror that Trump's mass deportation agenda and the Department of
Homeland Security's immigration raids are having on our communities.
My constituents have been surveilled, threatened, teargassed, hit
with pepper balls, and shot. They have been subjected to warrantless
arrests, rammed with Department of Homeland Security vehicles,
kidnapped, and disappeared. People keep asking us why DHS agents are
allowed to behave this way. Why isn't Congress doing something about
it?
Let me start by saying that DHS was intentionally established with an
overbroad mission and, some would argue, unchecked power. Yet,
Republicans have expanded that power with a blank check and unlimited
personnel.
With his authoritarian tendencies, his power grabs, his overreach,
and his willingness to shamelessly use DHS as his own terror force,
Trump is only making visible what so many communities have already
known to be true: Terrorizing is the point. Violating our rights is the
point. Fear is the point.
Creating a public enemy is meant to convince Americans to sacrifice
our freedoms for the promise of security. Let me be very clear. Nothing
that the Department of Homeland Security is doing is making us any
safer.
In this moment, under Secretary Noem and under Donald Trump, DHS has
become the single greatest threat to public safety. DHS agents used
chemical weapons on protesters and bystanders at least 49 times across
18 incidents in Chicago and the suburbs since October 1. Bovino and CBP
agents are violating court injunctions and agency rules. They are lying
in court about incidents where civilians have been put in danger.
{time} 1720
The government alleges that Marimar Martinez used her car to assault
and impede Federal law enforcement, but then, Federal prosecutors filed
a motion to dismiss their own case.
Why?
It is because while she didn't assault the agents, they did shoot her
five times, and then they went on and bragged about it.
You see, Mr. Speaker, President Trump and DHS are lying. They are
acting with impunity. They are rejecting checks and balances, and they
are ignoring Congress and the courts.
Here is my question to this House: If DHS cannot be held accountable,
if we are obstructed from conducting oversight, and if they are
systematically undermining our civil rights and perpetrating violence
in our communities, then what, in fact, is Congress' responsibility?
You see, Mr. Speaker, the answer is clear. We must strip away every
tool they are using to terrorize us, starting with the taxpayer dollars
that they are using to harm Americans.
Today, in our Special Order hour, I am going to be yielding to my
colleagues who will highlight stories of victims of Trump's enforcement
overreach, discuss our ongoing work to hold the administration
accountable, and uplift how we are pushing back against the abuses of
this President, Secretary Noem, and of the entire administration.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Washington State (Ms.
Jayapal).
Ms. JAYAPAL. Mr. Speaker, I thank Representative Ramirez for her
incredible leadership on this issue and so many others. I thank the
Congressional Progressive Caucus for the Special Order hour and the
Hispanic Caucus for all the work that has been happening at this very,
very serious moment in time.
I stand here as the top Democrat on the Immigration Integrity,
Security and Enforcement Subcommittee on the Judiciary Committee. I
have been conducting shadow hearings both here in D.C. and across the
country.
In October, we had a shadow hearing in Chicago, Illinois, in the
gentlewoman's home State. I really appreciate all the work she did to
help us facilitate that. We had 18 Members of Congress from all over
the country come to that shadow hearing, and it was the largest act of
congressional immigration oversight since Donald Trump took office.
What we heard was alarming, and I have worked in this space for a
very
[[Page H5015]]
long time. Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino and his rogue
immigration agents are terrorizing everyone regardless of immigration
status.
We heard from an Active-Duty servicemember, someone who has put his
life on the line for this country, who was heartbroken because he had
to fly back to this country because his father had been deported and
was gone before he even got back from his deployment. He said: I have
put my life on the line for this country, and my father who has done
nothing wrong was deported.
It was outrageous.
On Halloween weekend alone, Bovino deployed tear gas in a residential
neighborhood as children were gathering for a Halloween parade. Border
Patrol agents dragged a 67-year-old U.S. citizen from his car, breaking
six of his ribs, while children in Halloween costumes watched in
horror.
What was his crime?
Turning down a street to get home. That is what he did.
Bovino then went south to Charlotte, North Carolina, to continue his
reign of terror. Masked agents raided a church. Charlotte-Mecklenburg
school records show that over 27,000 students were absent the first
school day following Border Patrol's arrival in the city. One U.S.
citizen reported Border Patrol tried to arrest him twice within 5
minutes.
In my home State of Washington, we have seen green card holders
taken, people who have lived in the United States for decades with deep
roots in our communities and U.S. citizen family members. In Issaquah,
Washington, agents kidnapped a mother outside her child's preschool and
quickly deported her. This is not unique. Since Trump rescinded the
practice of avoiding enforcement actions at sensitive locations, we
have seen a daycare worker snatched in front of children in Chicago and
a father arrested outside his child's preschool in Oregon.
Let's not forget that many care workers are immigrants. Among early
educators, 26 percent, close to one-half million people, are
immigrants. Many are being forced out of their jobs, whether it is
through Trump's mass forced layoffs when he has abruptly cancelled
entire categories of legal statuses or workers forced to step back from
care work after a loved one's detention and deportation.
Trump's assault on our communities is not possible without the U.S.
immigration incarceration system. Since Donald Trump took office,
people in detention have skyrocketed to unprecedented levels with over
66,000 people incarcerated in immigration facilities. ICE plans to
increase its capacity to detain an average of 107,000 people by the end
of the year using $45 billion that was in the Republicans' big, bad
betrayal bill.
How did Republicans finance that unprecedented spending?
They did it by stealing healthcare from 16 million Americans.
This is cruel and unnecessary. First, let's be clear that immigration
is a civil matter, not a criminal matter. People are held pending
immigration proceedings, and ICE itself has said that detention is not
supposed to be punitive. ICE's own numbers show that 73 percent of
those who have been detained have no criminal record and the vast
majority of the remaining 27 percent have minor convictions, like
traffic violations.
People are detained in horrific conditions. Facilities are
overcrowded, and people are sleeping on the ground next to toilets.
Folks are denied medical care. If the private prison companies running
the facilities provide any protein in meals, it is often undercooked
and, yes, sometimes bloody. Dinner is often served after midnight.
So it is no surprise that these conditions are so poor because about
90 percent of people who are imprisoned are imprisoned in for-profit
facilities which have a record of cutting corners on essential services
to reap profits. Trump has decimated oversight, including by illegally
blocking Members of Congress from doing unannounced inspections.
That is why today, with Representative Ramirez and 124 Members as
original cosponsors, we introduced my Dignity for Detained Immigrants
Act, transformative legislation that would completely overhaul the
system.
What is happening is not normal. We can't allow it to continue.
Mr. Speaker, I thank Mrs. Ramirez for her leadership.
Mrs. RAMIREZ. Mr. Speaker, I thank the Congresswoman for her
leadership.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Espaillat),
who is the chair of the Hispanic Caucus.
Mr. ESPAILLAT. Mr. Speaker, I thank Congresswoman Ramirez for her
leadership in this special hour, and I thank the Congressional
Progressive Caucus, as well as the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, and
all the other Members associated with this special hour.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to forcefully speak against the Trump
administration's horrific ICE abuses, far beyond an overreach on the
immigrant and Latino communities across the country.
Back in New York City, my community is being assaulted, and we are
hearing of the fear every single day. Fear has a way of settling into
communities and making sure they don't move forward. So we must break
with the fear.
Just recently a video surfaced from 26 Federal Plaza in New York City
that shows a distraught woman violently shoved to the ground, thrown to
the ground, and slammed to the ground by an ICE officer as her young
daughter tried to assist her. The woman was unarmed, nonviolent, and
posed absolutely no threat to anyone.
According to a recent investigation, more than 170 U.S. citizens have
been detained by immigration agents in recent months. These are U.S.
citizens, people who often are telling these officers that they are a
U.S. citizen, and they are disregarded and pushed aside, handcuffed and
detained for hours. Many reportedly have been kicked, dragged, and
detained for days.
As of November 2025, ICE has detained 65,135 people, and roughly 73.6
percent of them have no criminal conviction.
Many in immigrant and Latino communities, including U.S.-born
individuals, now report fear, reluctance to go to court, to public
services, or even to participate in regular civic life.
The violent incident at 26 Federal Plaza is not an isolated lapse. It
reflects a much broader policy of aggressiveness and unaccountable
enforcement with little transparency and no due process.
{time} 1730
We must demand accountability, transparency, and protection of civil
rights to ensure enforcement respects due process and human dignity.
The American people are seeing the reality of this enforcement: fear,
brutality and injustice. They will not stand for it.
Mr. Speaker, I will echo again what I said in Chicago during the
hearing that we had there. Masked agents, without a first name and a
last name, without a shield number, anonymous masked ICE agents,
patrolling our streets, pushing people up against a wall, slamming to
the ground a sitting U.S. Senator for the State of California, Senator
Padilla, slamming a woman to the ground at 26 Federal Plaza in front of
her young girl, not representing or respecting sensitive locations like
places of worship, houses of worship--this is the State of America
today.
This is the Trump dictatorship. It is not tomorrow. It is not next
week, next month, or next year. It is happening right now. These are
the characteristics of a dictatorship, and we must do everything we can
to save our Nation.
Mrs. RAMIREZ. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Espaillat for his constant
leadership on this issue.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Garcia).
Mr. GARCIA of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to oppose the Trump
administration's outrageous overreach on immigration that is tearing
families apart in my district and around the country.
Since taking office, Trump has declared war on our communities.
Masked ICE and CBP thugs--I call them thugs because they don't identify
themselves. In our State, police officers, law enforcement, always
identify themselves. They have detained parents on their way to work.
They have kidnapped U.S. citizens. They have tear-gassed people,
including children. They have deployed the National Guard to our cities
and terrorized hardworking immigrants who are following the rules, all
without warning, charges, or due process.
[[Page H5016]]
This administration is abusing its power to trample on the
Constitution and our civil rights. Federal agents have shot two of my
constituents, one fatally. In the other, when they brought about
charges, the case fell apart and the charges were dropped. That case
was alluded to earlier in this presentation.
When agents show up in schools, hospitals, or factories without clear
authority or regard for court orders, they send a message to everyone
that their rights are conditional.
When agents run into a daycare center and drag out a teacher in front
of the children and parents, they are not following the law. They are
using gestapo tactics.
None of this is about public safety. More than 4,000 people have been
arrested by Federal agents in Chicago, but only about 3 percent have
any type of criminal records.
When the government goes after people just because of the color of
their skin or the jobs that they hold, they are not going after
criminals. They are clearly using racial profiling to meet the
arbitrary detention quotas they have been given.
The Congressional Hispanic Caucus and the Congressional Progressive
Caucus are standing up for the people. We are calling for transparency,
tracking every incident, and working on laws to curb unchecked power
and to restore our constitutional rights.
In the Fourth District and across the country, every family deserves
to feel safe and respected, knowing that their government is there to
protect their rights and uphold the law. We intend to hold this
administration accountable when they don't, every single time.
Mrs. RAMIREZ. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from California
(Mr. Carbajal).
Mr. CARBAJAL. Mr. Speaker, I represent California's Central Coast
where close to half of our residents are Latino and where farmworkers
are essential pillars of our community.
Since Trump's return to the White House, our community has
experienced an unprecedented level of chaos, fear from ICE raids, and
family separations. I witnessed one of these raids myself in
Carpinteria, California, where ICE agents unleashed a disproportionate
show of force.
What I saw was completely unacceptable, masked ICE agents in military
gear firing tear gas and other projectiles into a crowd of peaceful
civilians and reporters. Even a child was injured by shrapnel.
Upon seeing these violent tactics, I demanded to speak to the person
in charge, but I was denied.
As the elected Representative of the Central Coast, I have a duty to
respond to my constituents and demand accountability for ICE's actions
that day.
Sadly, this has not been an isolated incident. Throughout the year,
ICE has carried out aggressive, indiscriminate, and often unjustified
operations across our country, actions that erode our freedom and
undermine our civil rights and public trust in government.
ICE claims they need to be aggressive to keep us safe, but how does
harassing law-abiding farmworkers, families, and children make anyone
safer?
While I agree our immigration system is broken, cruelty is not the
solution. Harassment is not reform.
We must continue to shine a light on the Trump administration's
abuses. We must enact legislation that holds ICE accountable and builds
a fair immigration system.
At the end of the day, this is about who we are as a Nation. True
reform is possible, and I will keep fighting to make it happen.
Mrs. RAMIREZ. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from Oregon
(Ms. Salinas).
Ms. SALINAS. Mr. Speaker, I rise to call out the inhumane treatment
of immigrants and people living on American soil.
Individuals are missing from work, children are skipping school, and
people are too afraid to leave their own homes because Trump has
ordered his administration to arrest immigrants at any cost.
This manufactured chaos has resulted in ICE vigilantes arresting U.S.
citizens, even children. My own constituents have had to endure this
horrific trauma across Oregon's Willamette Valley.
Last week, I visited the Tacoma, Washington, ICE detention facility
to visit constituents and to conduct oversight. I wanted the
opportunity to see for myself the facility, to understand what my
constituents are being put through. I gave ICE their 7-day notice of my
arrival, as they had requested, but I knew I would get a sanitized
version of the privatized prison I would be shown. But the alternative
would be to drive 3 hours, and then they would turn me away. The goal
was to meet with my constituents and their attorney and get a tour of
the facility.
When I asked about the detainees not being able to access medication,
facility officials told me that detainees often lie about the lack of
access to medical care. They claimed anyone could get access to the
medical care that they need.
However, I know at least one of my constituents who was detained and
was not able to access the heart medication he needed. He went 2 weeks
without his lifesaving heart medicine.
Why would anybody lie about that, their heart medicine? He had no
reason to lie. But he did get it 2 weeks later when he was sent down to
Texas.
When I asked about the tuberculosis outbreak in the Alaska detention
facility, ICE claimed the news reports got it wrong. I questioned if
similar outbreaks happened in the Tacoma facility, and, again, was told
flatout lies. The attorney I spoke to afterward told me, yes, there
were outbreaks in the Tacoma facility.
When I asked about detainees not being able to access their
attorneys, facility officials told me, oh, there are tablets that they
can access and there are lots of rooms.
When I was supposed to meet with my constituents on that same day, I
was refused access to my own constituents and so was their attorney.
{time} 1740
Even with a full 7-day notice, the Tacoma ICE detention facility, the
Department of Homeland Security, and the GEO Group couldn't get their
story straight. They raised more questions than they could answer. The
questions that they did answer were lies, half-truths, and misleading
at best.
We should all be holding ICE, Homeland Security, and this
administration accountable. It may start at our local or regional
detention facilities, but it does not stop there.
We must hold Tom Homan, Kristi Noem, and Donald Trump accountable.
They must tell me why a 17-year-old U.S. citizen was arrested,
traumatized, and suffered shards of glass in his eye when an ICE
vigilante smashed in his driver's side window and arrested him,
detained him first, and asked questions later.
This is not justice. This is terror, but I have a voice. I have a
voice for the people in my district. I have a voice for those who still
believe that the United States is the land of opportunity, just as the
Salinas family did in 1945.
I will continue to conduct oversight and publicize the horrific acts
of ICE. They cannot continue to operate in the shadows. We must all
continue to speak out and hold those who have raised their hands and
pledged their oath to the Constitution accountable, but they are
failing miserably today.
Mrs. RAMIREZ. Mr. Speaker, I thank the Congresswoman for her
leadership.
I now yield to the gentlewoman from North Carolina (Ms. Adams).
Ms. ADAMS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding.
Mr. Speaker, my community of Charlotte was under siege by the
Department of Homeland Security's campaign of terror last month. They
called it Operation Charlotte's Web.
Border Patrol agents engaged in extreme racial profiling, excessive
force, and brutal tactics, spreading fear in our community.
It was fear that shattered the car window of a U.S. citizen born in
Honduras. He was thrown on the glass-covered ground in handcuffs after
he already identified himself to agents.
It was fear when more than 30,000 Charlotte-Mecklenburg students, 21
percent of the student body, were absent from school on the Monday
after the raids began because parents were terrified that their
children would be victims of CBP's brutality.
It was fear as businesses shuttered their doors to try and protect
their customers and employees from being wrongfully targeted by these
Federal agents.
[[Page H5017]]
Cruelty was the point of their operation, but Charlotte never caved
in to their cruelty. Instead, citizens packed churches for training to
empower themselves to respond to Border Patrol agents. Parents band
together to safely get their children to school, and businessowners
patrolled the streets to protect their neighbors, their customers, and
their employers.
CBP's actions in Charlotte were deplorable and absolutely
unacceptable. I have already reached out to DHS and demanded
transparency on exactly what Border Patrol was doing in Charlotte. I am
still waiting for answers to my questions.
Make no mistake about it. My constituents want answers. I do, too.
They deserve the answers, and I am going to keep fighting for them.
Congress must end these unlawful, un-American, and unnecessary raids
on our communities.
Mrs. RAMIREZ. Mr. Speaker, I agree with the Congresswoman.
Mr. Speaker, I now yield to the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr.
McGarvey).
Mr. McGARVEY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding.
Mr. Speaker, this isn't an abstract issue. I am hearing every single
day from constituents who are too afraid to go to the grocery store, to
go to school, to go to church, and to go to work. I am hearing from
nonprofits that are already stretched too thin while feeding our hungry
neighbors and are facing even more demand now that Trump is targeting
food assistance and breadwinners are being snatched off of the street.
This is the impact of the Trump administration's cruelty, a yearlong
tirade against immigrants in this country that has blown way past just
targeting violent criminals.
At home in Louisville, we don't have national troops in our backyard
or ICE performing public raids, but it is the quiet, steady increase in
arrests and profiling and detentions that has been devastating to our
community.
So many Louisvilleans, regardless of status, are afraid of being
profiled, attacked, or violently detained just because of how they
look. Masked agents are targeting parents in the pickup lines of their
school. They are dragging mothers out of their cars. They are smashing
windows to arrest old men, separating families in the middle of the
night, and zip tying children.
They are using immigration hearings and check-ins as setups and
defying court orders, and then our neighbors are being shipped off to
countries where they have never even been. They are being held in
detention centers with unspeakable, inhumane conditions with no due
process, no access to attorneys, and no path forward.
This is not immigration policy. This is cruelty for the sake of
cruelty and political theater with real-life consequences.
Indiscriminate arrests do not make anyone safer. Masked agents with
assault rifles and zero accountability don't give anyone peace of mind.
This cruelty doesn't serve anyone.
This isn't just happening in cities that you see on your TV screens.
As we have heard tonight, this is happening everywhere.
Mr. Speaker, to my colleagues across the aisle whose districts run on
the backs of immigrant labor, whose neighbors are just as scared as
mine, who are noticeably silent on this issue, where are you? Why
aren't you protecting your constituents? Why aren't you fighting for
the people who you represent because what you allow your government to
do to someone else, they will one day do to you. Speak up.
Mrs. RAMIREZ. Mr. Speaker, I thank the Congressman for his words.
Mr. Speaker, I now yield to the gentlewoman from Oregon (Ms. Dexter).
Ms. DEXTER. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague, the gentlewoman from
Illinois (Mrs. Ramirez), for her incredible leadership and holding us
together today.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today to make one thing clear: Trump's cruel
immigration agenda is not about public safety. It is about intimidation
and cruelty. The people of Oregon are living with the consequences of
that every single day.
A man recovering from surgery was violently pulled from his car and
left in excruciating pain. A pregnant mother was taken, separated from
her 2-year-old child, and denied comprehensive prenatal care while in
custody. Another mother in my district, along with her four U.S.-
citizen children, were detained for weeks without access to counsel.
They are parents doing school drop-offs, workers heading to their jobs,
and longtime neighbors who strengthen our communities.
Trump promises safety, but he delivers chaos. Cruelty is not law
enforcement. It is intimidation, and the harm goes beyond our immigrant
families.
In Portland, an elementary school had to relocate students because
chemical agents deployed by Federal immigration officials drifted onto
their campus. Low-income seniors were told to shut off their air
conditioning in the middle of summer because those chemicals were
entering their buildings' ventilation systems. When Portlanders have
peacefully stood against these abuses, they have been met with pepper
balls, tear gas, and masked agents using violent force.
Once again, nothing about this agenda is in the pursuit of public
safety. It is Federal power turned against the people who it is meant
to serve.
Congress must reject cruelty as a tool of policy and restore
humanity, transparency, and accountability.
That is why I introduced the Restoring Access to Detainees Act with
Senator Murphy. Every family should know where their loved one is being
held. Every detainee must have easy, free access to call legal counsel.
I also authored the CLEAR ID Act with Representative Crockett to
ensure that our community members are not approached or detained by
unidentified Federal agents. Without identification, there is no
accountability. That is how democracies erode, and we will not allow
it.
Trump wants America to believe that his cruelty makes us safer. It
does not. When communities live in fear, they cannot trust law
enforcement. When families are torn apart, our Nation grows weaker.
Real safety comes from stability, trust, and community, not fear and
force.
Mrs. RAMIREZ. Mr. Speaker, I thank the Congresswoman for her words.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Rivas).
Ms. RIVAS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the Congressional Hispanic Caucus,
the Congressional Progressive Caucus, and Congresswoman Ramirez for
organizing today's important conversation on the Trump administration's
cruel and inhumane treatment of immigrant communities.
This is an important discussion to have in front of the American
people because, as they have seen, ICE is out of control. All summer,
ICE has been terrorizing communities across Los Angeles, sowing fear in
our families, and rounding up our most vulnerable.
I have been sharing the story of Benjamin Guerrero-Cruz, a senior at
Reseda High School who was detained by ICE while walking his dog. He is
an older brother, a loving son, and a valued member of the community.
He is a high school student, just a kid. Benjamin should be in a
classroom, not a courtroom.
{time} 1750
Benjamin was detained by ICE, separated from his family and friends.
He was originally transferred from the Adelanto Detention Facility in
California to a detention center in Arizona. Less than 24 hours later,
he was on a plane ready to be sent to Louisiana, but instead, he was
sent back to California. This all occurred without his family even
knowing.
I keep sharing this story because the American people deserve to see
how cruelly ICE is treating children, elderly women, and others, even a
U.S. Senator.
ICE is incapable of treating our most vulnerable with the respect
that they deserve. If this was happening to Benjamin, imagine who else
it is happening to.
I have been urging ICE leadership to answer for their chaotic,
inconsistent, and cruel decisionmaking processes that have torn apart
families across the country.
This is why I introduced the INFORM Act. My bill holds ICE
accountable for the nightmare they are forcing families like Benjamin's
to live through. Many immigrant families in my district do not know the
whereabouts of their loved ones after they are detained
[[Page H5018]]
by ICE. My bill respects the dignity of immigrant families and promotes
government transparency.
With my Hispanic Caucus and Progressive Caucus colleagues, I will
continue showing up to detention facilities and working with my
colleagues to hold ICE accountable, promote government transparency,
and respect the dignity of immigrant families.
Mrs. RAMIREZ. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from California
(Mr. Gomez).
Mr. GOMEZ. Mr. Speaker, Trump's unhinged immigration raids started in
downtown Los Angeles, in my congressional district, not targeting the
``criminal'' immigrants that he promised he would go after, but
targeting anybody that looked like me, looked like my colleagues,
looked like my family members, looked like the people who live in Los
Angeles.
I don't know any MS-13 members, gang members, who work at a car wash
or as day laborers. That is where he was targeting, not focused on
people he said he was going to go after.
We warned everybody in this country that this would continue, that
they would go on to other cities, using immigration as a pretext to try
to intimidate blue cities in blue States and blue cities in red States,
and that a violation of the rights of immigrants and the rights of
people across the country is not going to be contained in L.A. It is
going to spread. They went on to D.C., Chicago, Portland, Charlotte,
and New Orleans, just as of today. That is what they are going after.
They want to intimidate people. They want to intimidate people who
don't agree with them, and that was before Donald Trump and the
Republicans passed the one big, beautiful bill. That included a $175
billion slush fund that would turn ICE and CBP into its own personal
national police force, where he could send it wherever he wants,
whenever he wants, without any accountability.
That is dangerous. That is a threat to our Republic. That is a threat
to our States. That is a threat to our communities.
We need to stand up and put an end to it. The way we do that is by
taking that money away and reinvesting it into something that the
American people need.
I introduced a bill called the Make Housing Affordable and Defend
Democracy Act. It takes that $175 billion to tackle the housing
affordability crisis in our country by investing that money to help
start a 21st century housing boom that will build 1 million units of
housing per year for the next 6 years, help renters with assistance to
get by, and, at the same time, give first-time home buyers money for a
downpayment.
If we want to tackle the affordability crisis that is at the top of
the agenda for the American people that is not a con job, then we need
to pass the Make Housing Affordable and Defend Democracy Act. It is
about affordability, not authoritarianism. It is about American values,
not Donald Trump's wins.
Mrs. RAMIREZ. Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from
Massachusetts (Ms. Pressley).
Ms. PRESSLEY. Mr. Speaker, I thank Congresswoman Ramirez for
yielding. I appreciate her leadership.
It is so important that we do not allow the hostile acts of this
administration to be normalized. We have to condemn, resist, and reject
them at every turn.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today on behalf of the targeted and the
marginalized, on behalf of our immigrant siblings who have had their
bodies assaulted, who have had their lives disrupted, who have had
their families separated, who have had their humanity erased and their
dignity denied, the men, women, and children who have been ripped from
our communities, thrown into cold cells, and shipped off to countries
many have never known.
The Trump administration would have you believe that they are
pursuing hardened criminals. Yet, according to ICE's own data, 85
percent of the people detained in Massachusetts, my home State, have no
criminal record.
Rogue, masked Federal agents are violating people's civil rights,
glorified bullies masquerading as public servants. They terrorize our
communities in the name of so-called law and order, while detaining and
deporting our neighbors without due process.
That hypocrisy is not a coincidence. It is a deliberate, resounding
message from an administration that believes that following the
Constitution is a mere suggestion.
My office has documented hundreds of cases marked by excessive force,
racial profiling, and the unlawful arrest of legal residents.
Just last month, rogue Federal agents descended on the Allston
neighborhood in Massachusetts' Seventh District, a diverse community
that is home to small businesses and music venues that are welcoming to
all. These Federal agents targeted a local car wash to harass and
abduct hardworking community members. Among them were five women who
were never afforded the chance to show their work permits and a 67-
year-old man who had disappeared for 3 days without access to his
medication.
Families waited in anguish to hear from their loved ones, many of
whom reported not having enough to eat and being unable to shower--
cruel, callous, inhumane, and unlawful.
In these trying times, I am not defeated. I am fortified and resolved
to fight back. The only way to beat a dictator is with defiance.
Together, we will protect our communities and defend our immigrant
neighbors and their families.
Mrs. RAMIREZ. Mr. Speaker, as you can hear from my colleagues here,
we are living the reality of this nightmare across the country. That is
why we are here to push back.
Mr. Speaker, I yield to the gentlewoman from New York (Ms. Clarke).
Ms. CLARKE of New York. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mrs. Ramirez for
yielding, and I appreciate her leadership in this moment.
Mr. Speaker, I rise on this day in opposition to the vicious,
violent, unconstitutional, and illegal war Donald Trump and his
administration continue to wage against our immigrant neighbors.
On the President's orders, the Department of Homeland Security and
its agents of hatred have taken unprecedented, unthinkable, and abusive
control over the lives of immigrant Americans. His goon squad has
broken up families, torn apart communities, and committed atrocities
equal only to the worst sins in the history of our Nation, with extra
sins to spare.
Refugees, asylum seekers, and countless other people desperately
seeking any semblance of safety beyond our shores have only found more
pain here in the land of the free and the home of the brave.
Even our neighbors with citizenship have been targeted in this
campaign of hatred. In fact, more than 170 U.S. citizens have already
been wrongfully detained under this administration, some held for days,
many subjected to brutality just for brutality's sake.
It pains me to know and to say that four of these citizens were
arrested during ICE's crackdown on New York City's Canal Street. It is
disgusting, unconstitutional, and uncivilized.
No matter how desperately he wishes it weren't, I have news for the
President: New York City will always be a sanctuary to the oppressed
and the powerless, as will other communities like ours across this
Nation. Our doors will always be open to those seeking refuge and
safety.
No matter how deeply they try to dehumanize immigrant Americans, the
people of this country know full well where the inhumanity lies. The
President and his masked agents of violence and hatred have seen to
that.
{time} 1800
Mr. Speaker, I thank Congresswoman Delia Ramirez so much for your
leadership, for your truth telling, and for your standing up.
Mr. Speaker, to all of my colleagues on the Progressive Caucus, we
are on the right side of history. This history that we are experiencing
right now, this era, will go down in infamy.
Mrs. RAMIREZ. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from New York (Ms.
Clarke) for her leadership.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from Hawaii
(Ms. Tokuda).
Ms. TOKUDA. Mr. Speaker, 80 years ago, over 120,000 Japanese
individuals were stripped of their rights and forced into barbed-wire
camps because of the way they looked and the language they spoke.
My great-grandfather, my GG, was one of them. He was taken from his
[[Page H5019]]
home on Maui and imprisoned not for anything that he had done but for
who he was. We said then, ``never again.'' Yet, here we are today.
Now, the very sites where Japanese-American families were
incarcerated have been reopened. Fort Bliss, a World War II internment
camp, is now the Nation's largest immigrant detention center.
To add insult to injury, the Trump administration is using the same
law, the Alien Enemies Act that was once used to imprison Japanese
Americans, to detain and fast track deportations, with zero due process
rights.
While this administration insists it is targeting dangerous
criminals, we know that more than 73 percent of those in ICE custody
have no criminal convictions at all.
This administration is also intentionally dismantling legal pathways
and stripping people of lawful status so they can be deported. We just
saw this on Kauai recently, where a raid that swept up 44 people ended
with six Venezuelan men--who were legally here seeking asylum--self-
deporting after the administration revoked temporary protected status
for their country. To anyone who thinks this could never happen to me,
consider this: Two-thirds of the Japanese imprisoned in camps were
American citizens. Their children, like my grandfather, serving in the
United States military in defense of a country who saw them as the
enemy.
Today, American citizens are also being rounded up, once again,
stopped and detained, simply for the way they look, by officers who
face no accountability. United States military veterans are being
picked up, detained, and deported.
What we are witnessing is a slow methodical erosion of citizens'
rights and a cold indifference towards treating entire communities as
national security threats.
We are in the midst of history in the making, and history has already
shown us the dangers of what this country can do when given unchecked,
unfettered immigration authorities.
Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues on all sides of the aisle: How much
are we willing to tolerate before we say enough is enough?
Eighty years later, this Nation still reflects with shame at what it
did to our Japanese-American families. We apologized. We vowed to
learn. We vowed to do better, and we have failed.
``Never again.'' ``Nidoto nai.''
Mrs. RAMIREZ. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman
from California (Mr. Vargas) to talk more about how enough is enough.
Mr. VARGAS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding.
Mr. Speaker, enough is enough. I rise today to join my colleagues in
sounding the alarm on Trump's out-of-control immigration crackdown.
Since January, Trump has unleashed a mass deportation agenda and
indiscriminate immigration enforcement that has pushed past all moral
and legal boundaries.
In Chicago, Federal immigration agents tear-gassed kids and fired
pepper balls at a pastor.
In Charlotte, ICE agents descended on the grounds by a church and
forced terrified congregants to flee into the woods outside.
At home in San Diego, we had a horrific incident where Federal agents
stormed into a local restaurant frequented by families. They handcuffed
all the employees and flash-bang grenades were used outside.
There are stories like this from communities all across the country
about what this administration has done. We heard them today. Stories
of Trump's immigration agents causing fear and chaos. Stories of
violent raids turning quiet neighborhoods into places that feel more
like war zones.
Trump's out-of-control immigration enforcement is terrorizing our
communities and putting our civil liberties under threat. Undocumented
immigrants are not the only ones affected. It is also harming U.S.
citizens, people with legal status, and those who have been here for
decades contributing to our country.
We cannot turn away. We cannot be silent. We must continue to fight
against these abuses. Communities deserve policies that protect
families, protect peace and safety, and uphold rights.
Mr. Speaker, I thank the Catholic church and the bishops for their
courageous, unwavering support for the immigrant community in our
country. I ask all other religions and leaders of faith to come
forward.
Why are you silent in this shameful moment?
We should hear your voices as it is commanded in Leviticus very
clearly. Leviticus 19:33-34 says: ``When a foreigner resides among you
in your land, do not mistreat them. The foreigner residing among you
must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you
were foreigners in Egypt. I am the Lord your God.''
Please come forward. Don't be silent.
Mrs. RAMIREZ. Mr. Speaker, may those that quote Scripture remember
what the Scripture says.
Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Arizona (Mrs.
Grijalva).
Mrs. GRIJALVA. Mr. Speaker, since the beginning of his second term,
Donald Trump has directed an enforcement machine that is not only cruel
but unconstitutional, targeting longtime residents, law-abiding visa
holders, U.S. citizens, and even veterans who have fought for this
country.
In border communities like the one I represent in Arizona's Seventh
Congressional District, we see the impact of these abuses every single
day. We have seen Border Patrol waiting outside of hospitals, literally
arresting women after they have given birth--no due process, no regard
for human rights.
Last week, we saw a disturbing example near the ranching community of
Arivaca. Humanitarian volunteers with No More Deaths reported that
Border Patrol agents forced their way into their desert aid station
known as Byrd Camp, without a warrant and arrested three migrants who
were resting inside a trailer. Volunteers told agents they could not
enter without a warrant. Agents left, then returned claiming that they
were in hot pursuit, even though there was no chase, no threat, and no
legal justification that would allow entering a protected structure.
This camp has existed for decades to keep people from dying in the
desert. More than 4,400 men, women, and children have died crossing the
border in Arizona since 2000. The camp has been raided before, but
previously with a warrant. What happened on November 23 was different.
It was lawless, intentional, and part of a broader pattern of unchecked
enforcement that treats border communities as if the Constitution does
not apply.
Let me say this clearly. The Fourth Amendment does not disappear in
southern Arizona. Due process does not disappear because someone is a
migrant. And humanitarian aid is not a crime.
Mrs. RAMIREZ. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from
California (Mrs. Torres).
Mrs. TORRES of California. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak out
against the narrative being promoted about immigrants, portraying them
as rapists, drug dealers, and murderers.
These claims are nothing more than a self-reflection of our country's
leaders who promised to protect Americans and enforce the law, yet
whose actions have violated basic human rights, the Constitution, the
rule of law, and are now costing our country economically.
Under these policies, DHS is targeting people because of the color of
their skin, the language they speak, and where they come from. Families
are being separated, children are traumatized, and communities live in
fear. These actions are weakening our labor force, shrinking our tax
base, and threatening industries that rely on a stable workforce.
Members of Congress should not be targeted with CS gas, shoved, or
have false charges filed against them simply for performing oversight.
Citizens should not be shot at simply for raising concerns about the
safety of children in the presence of armed men in their neighborhoods.
This approach doesn't make us safer. It disrupts local economies,
increases costs for taxpayers, and undermines the workforce that keeps
our country running.
Every day these policies continue, businesses lose workers, consumers
lose purchasing power, and taxpayers pay for the unnecessary
enforcement. We need transparency, fair treatment,
[[Page H5020]]
and laws that reflect reality, not fear or political theater.
{time} 1810
Let me remind this Chamber, undocumented immigrants--the same people
being targeted--contributed $96.7 billion in Federal, State, and local
taxes in 2022, including $25.7 billion into Social Security benefits
they will never receive, $6.4 billion into Medicare, $1.8 billion into
unemployment insurance.
If some Members don't care about the human cost, consider the
financial one. Removing these workers weakens our economy and raises
costs for everyone. Protecting them protects our bottom line.
Mrs. RAMIREZ. Mr. Speaker, I thank the Congresswoman for her remarks.
May we remember, I think she said $96.7 billion is what undocumented
immigrants give in tax revenue every single year.
I yield to the gentlewoman from Arizona (Ms. Ansari) to close the
speakers for the day.
Ms. ANSARI. Mr. Speaker, I thank Congresswoman Ramirez for her
leadership.
Mr. Speaker, the Trump regime's mass deportation agenda is not about
public safety. It is part of a much bigger story of corruption,
cruelty, and abuse of power that defines Trump's America.
Earlier this year, Congress authorized a massive slush fund under
Trump's so-called big, beautiful bill, pouring more than $170 billion
of taxpayer money into enforcement and detention center expansion
without any sort of meaningful oversight.
At the heart of this system sits a vast network of privatized
detention facilities run by private prison corporations, like CoreCivic
and GEO Group, whose bottom lines depend on filling these beds. These
companies are awarded government contracts worth billions of dollars,
yet their facilities are notorious for cutting corners on healthcare,
food, and safety in order to maximize shareholder profits.
I have seen this firsthand at the Eloy Detention Center in Arizona
run by CoreCivic. I have talked to dozens of women who have been
detained there. They shared with me their testimonies about lack of
clean drinking water, lack of air conditioning during Arizona's extreme
heat, racist inhumane treatment, and of course my constituent Yari, who
was a green card holder who has leukemia, has been detained there and
refused access to an oncologist for 6 months until direct outreach from
our office and the community's input as well.
This is all, again, all about shareholder profit. CoreCivic, for
example, had a revenue of $530 million during the second quarter of
this year alone, an almost 10 percent increase from 2024.
Meanwhile, GEO Group's chairman said: Republicans' new slush fund for
ICE would provide ``unprecedented growth opportunities.''
CoreCivic's CEO Damon Hininger stated in shareholder calls that this
is a ``pivotal moment,'' and that ``business is perfectly aligned with
demands of this moment.'' That is disgusting.
Donald Trump's cruelty against immigrants has transformed human
misery into both a political spectacle and a business model. The more
people that are detained, the more money private corporations make, and
the more campaign contributions and political power flow directly back
to Donald Trump and those who fund this system.
This is Trump's corruption machine turning our immigration system
into a pay-to-play racket for his donors. Meanwhile, families across
the country are paying the price, and parents are torn from their
children, leaving households and communities economically devastated.
Taxpayers in this country are footing the bill for a system not
designed to keep us safe, but to funnel money into the pockets of a
powerful few.
It does not have to be this way. We can invest in alternatives to
detention centers that are proven to be more humane and effective. We
can end blank checks for ICE and stop the privatization of immigration
detention centers once and for all, and we can finally reject the lie
that Trumpian cruelty is security because in America, our safety should
never come second to a billion dollar corporation's profit.
Mrs. RAMIREZ. Mr. Speaker, the bottom line is this: What is happening
today in our communities is not an accident, it is not new. DHS is not
rogue. From its establishment, DHS has always been empowered to violate
our rights under the pretense of securing our safety.
It is why they wear masks, why they refuse to wear badges, why they
won't identify themselves, and why they resist oversight and
accountability.
They were designed to operate in shadow and secrecy because they are
waging a war against the American people. You may not know it because
they just haven't come for you yet. Trump's authoritarian fascist
tendencies, his power grabs, his overreach, and his willingness to
shamelessly use DHS as his own terror force is only making visible what
so many communities have already known to be true: DHS is a democratic
liability and a tool for authoritarian control.
Nothing that DHS is doing is making us any safer, and Americans,
frankly, they are done. We see through the lies. We cannot assure our
security by sacrificing our humanity, our dignity, or our liberty. We
have seen what DHS can do with its unlimited resources and unchecked
power, and we say enough. DHS has to be held accountable.
Today, as you have heard the stories from my colleagues of Trump's
immigration enforcement overreach, I want to encourage you to remember
history and context. We brought DHS into this world less than 25 years
ago. We can build a world without it as well.
I thank my colleagues who joined today's Special Order on Trump's
immigration overreach. We understand that true security is built by
investing in people, and as Members of Congress we must actively build
that world through policies that defend and expand our rights and civil
liberties, not crush them. That is the work we must do, and we must
resist the fear that would tell us that we must surrender our rights
and forfeit our values in order to protect the little we have when we
deserve so much more.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Baumgartner). I thank the good ladies
for their spirited comments and remind Members to refrain from engaging
in personalities toward the President and to direct their remarks to
the Chair.
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