[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 70 (Tuesday, April 21, 2026)]
[Senate]
[Page S1848]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  IMMIGRATION AND CUSTOMS ENFORCEMENT

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, remember the rallies? President Trump 
would stand up at the rallies and say: We are going to get rid of the 
``worst of the worst'' criminals who managed to sneak into the United 
States in violation of our immigration laws--the rapists, the 
murderers, the terrorists, the criminally insane, those who are 
exploiting our children. That was his goal, stated over and over again.
  But let's look at the record. Earlier this month, in the midst of 
President Donald Trump's mass deportation campaign, members of my staff 
traveled to Southwest Texas to conduct oversight of ICE's Dilley family 
detention facility. ICE allowed my staff 2 hours--just 2 hours--for the 
entire visit and notified them of the limitation when they were en 
route to the facility.
  What is ICE and this administration trying to conceal?
  My staff's visit uncovered serious issues. Let me tell you some of 
their findings.
  If the Dilley detention facility sounds familiar, that is because 
that is where ICE held 5-year-old Liam Ramos, the boy in the blue bunny 
hat and the Spiderman backpack, whose image symbolizes this 
administration's inhumane detention agenda as part of their gross 
deportation effort.
  After public outcry and a Federal court order, 5-year-old Liam was 
released after 10 days, but that is not the outcome for many children 
being held at the Dilley ICE facility.
  Hayam El Gamal and her five children--ranging in age from 5 to 18--
have been held for nearly a year. That is believed to be the longest 
anyone has been detained during Trump's second term.
  Hayam's husband faces serious State charges for a violent attack in 
Boulder, CO, last June. There is no question that he should face the 
full weight of the law. But the FBI and an immigration judge found 
Hayam and her children engaged in no wrongdoing and had no prior 
knowledge of their father's horrific actions. Should they be punished 
for his crime too?
  Just yesterday, a magistrate judge recommended the family's habeas 
petition be granted. The judge found the family had been detained in 
violation of their due process rights and recommended they be released 
after being held for nearly 1 year.
  The judge ruled:

       [T]he government has engaged in procedural maneuvers aimed 
     at thwarting the possibility of [El Gamal family's] 
     discretionary release from the moment they were taken into 
     custody.

  If, despite the judge's recommendations, the Department of Homeland 
Security still objects to the release of an innocent woman and her five 
children, we know exactly why that is the case. It is not because they 
present any danger to the community or a flight risk. It is because 
they are immigrants--Arab Muslim immigrants at that.
  Earlier this year, through their attorney, the El Gamal family 
submitted to the Senate Judiciary Committee letters and drawings 
describing their life inside the Dilley detention facility in Texas.
  In one letter, their 9-year-old child wrote:

       We have been here for 9 months. I really miss playing with 
     my toys and my watch. Please get us out of here.

  In another, the 16-year-old wrote:

       I have seen, with my own eyes, food that has mold in it. I 
     even saw food with actual worms.

  These are children in a facility run under Federal contract, paid for 
by you and me, the American taxpayers.
  The mother has experienced despair and a recent medical emergency. 
Only 1 hour after my staff left the facilities, this mother was rushed 
to the emergency room in pain. The doctor recommended she receive an 
ultrasound. ICE denied it. Hayam has a history of cancer. She was 
denied a recommended diagnostic procedure. ICE is allowing this medical 
neglect, even when so many people are dying in immigration detention.
  The El Gamal family's case is an extreme one, but, unfortunately, 
their experiences in detention are not uncommon, as there are 
widespread reports of inhumane conditions at ICE facilities across the 
country.
  Earlier this month, the peer-reviewed Journal of the American Medical 
Association published a 22-year study of deaths in ICE custody. Its 
finding: The death rate in fiscal year 2026 is the highest in the 
entire study period--higher than any year on record, higher even than 
during the COVID outbreak.
  And this year alone, 17 people have already died in immigration 
detention. They are people who died in American custody, many of them 
from treatable conditions, such as cardiovascular disease and 
infections.
  This is happening inside a detention system that congressional 
Republicans injected with $45 billion in the One Big Beautiful Bill 
Act, and now the Republicans want to use the partisan budget 
reconciliation process to pour even more money into this system. It is 
a system where about 90 percent of detention beds are run by private 
corporations for profit--not care standards but profits--and they hit 
record highs last year.
  In February, I sent a letter to Secretary Kristi Noem, sounding the 
alarm on the dramatic increase in deaths in ICE detention. While she 
was shown the door--and thank goodness for that--problems at these 
facilities and at ICE persist.
  The El Gamal family has been at Dilley for nearly a year. Hayam is a 
mother. Her youngest children are 5-year-old twins. They have done 
nothing wrong. It is time for the Federal Government to heed the 
recommendations of the magistrate judge and release them.
  As the partial government shutdown of DHS continues, House 
Republicans refuse to even consider the bipartisan Senate-passed bill 
to fund all of DHS except ICE and CBP. Democrats will not fund cruelty 
without accountability. We will continue to demand the reforms ICE and 
CBP require, including the end of roving patrols, requiring a judicial 
warrant to enter someone's home and conduct searches, a uniform code of 
conduct to restore trust--one similar to those followed by police 
departments in every corner of this country--and clear identification 
and the removal of masks to improve accountability.
  As they prepare to turn to the partisan budget reconciliation process 
to fund ICE, Republicans in Congress have a choice: Demand 
accountability for every dollar we give this Agency or keep signing 
checks to a slush fund while people are detained by ICE.
  Remember what the President said? We are going after the ``worst of 
the worst''--the terrorists, rapists, murderers, the criminally insane, 
those who are exploiting our children.
  Does it sound like this family, which has been waiting in detention 
for 1 year with no charges, fits into that category? Of course not.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Armstrong). The Senator from Montana.

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