[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 114 (Tuesday, July 14, 2026)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4087-S4089]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               DEMOCRACY

  Mr. BOOKER. Mr. President, I think there are profound moments in the 
course of our 250 years when our Nation was at an inflection point, and 
I believe this is one of those inflection points where, as we look at 
the events in our Nation, we don't just ask the question ``What is 
happening?'' we have to ask the question ``Who are we becoming?''
  There are moments where this question of ``Who are we as a nation?'' 
has to come with the understanding that every generation of Americans 
has to define themselves. This is a question right now, with the events 
of recent days, where we must ask that question--who are we as a 
nation? What do we stand for?

  This is a question that is larger than politics, larger than left or 
right, larger than immigration policy, larger than any one party. It is 
a question that really asks about the immense power that we entrust to 
our government and is that still constrained. Do we still live under a 
Constitution where, by our very definition as a nation, we should have 
accountability and transparency; that when we do things like pledge 
allegiance to a flag, it is not simply the banner, but it is also the 
values, this idea that every single life has worth.
  Think about these conceptions of humanity that we put forth 250 years 
ago--that we are all created equal. I believe this is an inflection 
point in our Nation that should not be normalized but should really 
force us to ask this question as American citizens and ask this 
question as Members of this body.

[[Page S4088]]

  Every life--every life--was created equally, has equal dignity, equal 
worth. And when government, our government, takes a life, there must be 
accountability; that is something precious in this Nation, the value of 
life and the responsibility of those who wield power.
  It is not just confidence in government that I am talking about. It 
is not just faith in how our laws are enforced. It really is the very 
idea of our Nation. That is how I want to set my remarks here because 
this is an inflection point in America.
  We are a nation that stands for something. Our Nation was founded on 
the belief that all are created equal, endowed by their Creator with 
inalienable rights, and among them are life, liberty, and the pursuit 
of happiness. But today, I am rising because of my growing concern that 
we are not living up to those ideals, and the consequences of that are 
that we are normalizing something so utterly tragic.
  Two more people have fallen in our Nation. Two more families are 
grieving in our Nation. And I refuse to believe that this is simply the 
cost of doing business in the United States of America.
  Last Tuesday morning, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo climbed into his work 
van like millions of Americans do all over our country every single 
workday. He wasn't headed to a protest or a political rally. He wasn't 
headed into conflict. He was headed to work. He was 52 years old. He 
was a husband, a father of American children, a man who spent decades 
in this country building a life, supporting his family, contributing to 
his community, paying taxes.
  On his way to work, Federal agents in unmarked vehicles began 
following his van. Moments later, an officer fired through the 
passenger side window, and Lorenzo stumbled from that vehicle. Agents 
forced him to the ground, and he died right there on the pavement.
  Yesterday morning, it happened again. Joan Sebastian Guerrero. He was 
26 years old and also a father. He was authorized to work in our 
country, has a Social Security number. On his way to work, another 
shooting. Another grieving family. Another life, precious life, gone.
  I stand here today because I am deeply worried about something so 
fundamental to our country that is now in crisis. I worry that we are 
becoming accustomed to things that should horrify us, that we are 
becoming so exhausted, so polarized, so overwhelmed that another death 
just becomes another headline, another investigation, another news 
cycle, another family left to grieve.
  The greatest danger to democracy is not simply injustice; it is when 
injustice no longer shocks us, no longer moves us, no longer compels us 
to meet that injustice. It is a poverty--a poverty of empathy, a 
poverty of concern. It is a tragedy that in the midst of tragedy, our 
hearts stop breaking, when outrage gives way to indifference, because 
indifference is where accountability goes to die.
  And this is not the first time. Earlier this year, Renee Good was 
killed, and Alex Pretti was killed. American citizens. Families forever 
changed. Lives forever interrupted. And what happened? Investigations 
were literally shut down by our Justice Department. Think about that. 
The highest law enforcement officers in the land shut down an 
investigation into those murders. Those investigations were not 
completed. They did not follow where the evidence led. They were simply 
stopped, halted. Justice denied.
  Every police officer--and I have worked closely with many of them--
every police officer knows that when deadly force is used, there must 
be scrutiny, not because we assume any guilt but because accountability 
protects everyone in our democracy.
  It protects the public; it protects the officers; it protects the 
confidence in the very idea of the rule of law upon which our country 
and our Constitution is built.
  No badge and no police officer I know fear transparency. So many of 
the honorable officers that I dealt with every day as a mayor, they 
want the truth. In fact, those incredible officers demand it because 
accountability is not the enemy of law enforcement. It is what gives 
law enforcement its strength and its true moral authority. It is what 
gives the laws of this land and those who conduct them their very 
legitimacy. To not investigate, scrutinize, have transparency and 
accountability when tragedy strikes, erodes the very foundation of our 
democracy. Amidst the tragedy of those depths, we see our very 
constitutional principles at stake, and this is where Congress has an 
obligation.
  Right now, we are seeing with ICE in America, this Congress 
appropriated billions upon billions of dollars, handing this Agency 
unprecedented sums of taxpayer money but also in that process allowing 
oversight to be stripped away, less accountability.
  Think about this: We have appropriated to this one law enforcement 
Agency over $200 billion, more than the FBI, the ATF, the DEA, the 
Marshals Service, the Bureau of Prisons, Secret Service, TSA, and the 
Coast Guard combined. ICE in America has a bigger budget than those 
eight law enforcement organizations, billions upon billions of dollars, 
over $200 billion.
  And yet what do we get? Greater accountability? Greater oversight? 
No. We get lowering of hiring standards. We get reduced oversight. We 
get internal watchdogs removed or weakened. We get body cameras still 
absent, as we saw in these last two murders, as if we can't afford 
them.
  More money, more power, less accountability, less scrutiny, less 
oversight--this is not conservative government. The fiscal 
conservatives on both sides understand that you don't shovel money 
toward an organization, outstripping most law enforcement Agencies in 
the entire United States of America, whether those that are 
investigating drug trafficking or insurance fraud or illegal arms 
smuggling. No, $200 billion--the most spent for ICE--and you get less 
accountability for those taxpayer dollars and then when tragedy 
strikes, less accountability for actions of horror.
  This is dangerous, not just to families that are being pulled over 
and detained and thrown onto pavement. It is not just dangerous to the 
horrible deaths of the names that I have mentioned. But it is dangerous 
to our democracy.
  But perhaps those who have passed under these circumstances, we 
should listen to them. Perhaps we should listen to their last words.
  Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, his last words:

       They are killing me.

  Joan Sebastian Guerrero, his last words:

       I tried to stop.

  Nicole Renee Good, her last words:

       I'm not mad at you.

  Alex Pretti, perhaps words that should penetrate us now, his last 
words:

       Are you OK?

  Now, I thought about those words:

       Are you OK?

  ``Are you OK?''
  And that is the question. Are we OK? Are we OK? Are we OK when 
fathers are killed on their way to work? Are we OK when systems of 
oversight have virtually disappeared? Are we OK when we entrust the 
extraordinary power, when we entrust that power and yet the people in 
power face less accountability to the people that put them in power?
  Are we, as a nation, becoming so numb that the death of law-abiding 
people by agents does not motivate us to ask: Why is this happening in 
America, under what justification? Are we shrinking from our duty as 
Americans to value every life and understand that injustice anywhere is 
a threat to justice everywhere?
  I don't think we are becoming numb, but I worry that the Senate is 
consciously looking away; that we are not doing our sworn 
constitutional duty. Our Founders, in their genius, decided to set up a 
government with checks and balances.
  What happens to that government when the article I branch of the 
government here in the Senate does not ask questions like Alex Pretti 
did, does not look for answers like people are demanding, does not ask 
for oversight, not just over the $200 billion being spent but doesn't 
ask for oversight when the most horrific imaginable thing can happen, 
when law-abiding people are killed? Are we not asking for answers?

[[Page S4089]]

  This Senate swore an oath to the Constitution. We have an obligation 
to provide checks and balances, to conduct oversight, to demand 
transparency, to hold the executive branch accountable when power is 
abused. Today, we are failing in our constitutional duty. Today, we are 
failing our democracy. Today, we are failing families that are mourning 
and grieving.
  Look, this is not an immigration speech. It is not a speech about 
whether we support strong borders. I do, unequivocally and firmly. 
America must have secure borders. It must enforce its immigration laws. 
America must protect all of its communities from any threats.
  The first words of our founding document talked about forming a 
government of common defense and the safety and security of our 
communities. But we can never ever abandon the fundamental precept that 
this is a democracy, and therefore we must have accountability.
  We are not an autocracy. We are not an authoritarian government. We 
are not a monarchy where we have Kings and Queens above question, above 
accountability, and above the law.
  We are a democracy, and the very mission of this body is to hold the 
Executive accountable when they are taking Executive action, especially 
when they are using the greatest power that could be entrusted into a 
government that is to take lives, to kill people. To minimize that, to 
watch people die in our streets without accountability or transparency 
is a direct assault on the foundational ideals of who we are as a 
people.

  ``Are we OK,'' he asks. Are we OK? This is the revolutionary idea of 
America. No person, not a President, not Senators, not judges, no 
person is above the law--not a Federal agent in an unmarked car and 
undistinguished uniform with a gun in their hands firing through a 
window and killing someone.
  Power without accountability is not strength. It is the beginning of 
tyranny. Every government is asked whether it will preserve the 
principles it inherited. This is our moment. This is why the 
Constitution envisioned this body. And yet we are failing in that duty 
to provide oversight, accountability, checks and balances.
  And the consequence is the repeated tragedy within this Agency of 
seeing people killed on our streets. We owe these families, we owe our 
democracy an independent investigation. I demand that from my 
colleagues. I call upon an independent investigation, and I should be 
joined by a chorus of my colleagues with the conviction that this is 
not right or left. This is why we were elected in the first place and 
why we put our hands on our Bible and swore an oath to that 
Constitution.
  I am anguished. I am angry. This is an inflection point in our 
democracy, another one that seems to be coming with increasing speed 
and rapidity. We make this presumption that this Nation sits upon a 
bedrock that will never crumble.
  Well, I am telling you, I am not afraid of any nation outside of our 
own. What I am afraid of is the corrosive, cancerous corruption of a 
nation who swears an oath to ideals but does not fulfill them in their 
duty.
  I don't know what to say when we have another dead person, when we 
are seeing people in our streets, law-abiding, loving their families, 
and they are asking those questions: Who are we in this Nation?
  I pray that this Senate changes course, and instead of silence they 
answer with a commanding conviction that we are the United States of 
America. We are a nation of laws; that no one, be they the President, 
be they a Senator, be they an officer in the street, no one is above 
the law.

                          ____________________