[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 128 (Wednesday, August 5, 2026)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4451-S4453]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                  Immigration and Customs Enforcement

  Mr. PADILLA. Mr. President, colleagues, there is a lot going on in 
the country right now--actually, a lot going on around the world. And I 
rise today not to address specifically the cost-of-living challenges 
that so many working families are struggling with. That is certainly a 
topic of news these days--rightfully so. I am not here to focus on what 
families of deployed servicemembers must be feeling right now, although 
that is certainly worthy of our thoughts and consideration and empathy, 
particularly the family members and the loved ones of the 18 
servicemembers that have lost their lives in this unauthorized war with 
Iran that the President has brought us into.
  I want to focus on something that about a year ago was really 
dominating the evening news and a lot of our social media feeds--
immigration, and specifically this administration's cruel, often 
violent tactics as part of their mass deportation agenda.
  Families are still being torn apart. Tens of thousands of immigrants 
are currently being detained in detention centers around the country. 
Loved ones of those killed by Federal agents in broad daylight are also 
still hurting, including the family of Johan Sebastian Guerrero, the 
25-year-old father and immigrant from Colombia who had work 
authorization, who was driving in his car last month when a Federal 
agent opened fire, shooting him in the head and killing him.
  I hope you remember the story. It wasn't that long ago. If you 
followed the story, you will know that his partner and his 3-year-old 
daughter, still dressed in her Bluey pajamas that morning, were there 
at the scene because it was so close to their home.
  According to witnesses, Johan's last words were:

       I tried to stop.

  I raise this because whenever there is a tragedy like this that 
happens, under this administration, we quickly hear from Department 
officials, from the White House, and MAGA supporters that all these 
victims had to do was to follow instructions, as if it was their fault 
they were being shot and, in some instances, killed. Well, that is 
exactly what Johan was attempting to do. Yet he was killed anyway.
  I know we don't have all the details of exactly how this tragedy 
unfolded. In large part, we don't have all the details because some 
people say ``Well, let's go to the video; let's go to the body cam 
footage and see exactly what happened,'' but despite receiving billions 
and billions of taxpayer dollars, which included funding for body 
cameras, these officers weren't wearing any.
  But there are a couple of things that we know for certain. First of 
all, Johan Sebastian Guerrero's daughter should still have her father. 
Second--and this is publicly reported--the man who took his life should 
never have been given a badge and a gun. And that is not just

[[Page S4452]]

coming from me; that is coming from Tom Homan--that is right--President 
Trump's ``border czar,'' who recently said in a TV interview:

       I don't think he should ever have cleared vetting.

  From what we have learned, this is a man who verbally, emotionally, 
and physically abused not just one but two ex-wives and once threw his 
13-year-old daughter through a glass coffee table. So Mr. Homan is 
absolutely right when he says that this man's hiring was a failure of 
the Agency's vetting process.
  But it is emblematic of a much larger failure within the Department 
of Homeland Security. ICE has rushed, this last year, to put as many 
officers as it could into communities as quickly as possible--something 
pretty hypocritical, by the way, from an administration calling for the 
revetting of previously vetted refugees and other immigrants.
  But I digress. In less than a year, ICE has hired more than 12,000 
officers, a 120-percent increase in staffing--huge increase in a small 
amount of time. In part, they were so eager to hire up that they were 
offering $50,000 bonuses for people who signed on to the Agency. Along 
the way, they also lowered recruitment standards to try to hire as many 
people as possible, and they shortened training--shortened training--
for law enforcement officers before deploying them into the streets.
  Anybody with history and experience with State and local law 
enforcement knows what happens when you do this. It is a bad 
combination, a recipe for disaster when you hire too quickly, shorten 
training, and lower recruitment standards. Now the Federal Government 
is seeing the consequences of those bad decisions.
  How many more unqualified individuals who have not been sufficiently 
vetted or trained are now in our communities, not just armed but armed 
as if they are going to war--that is not the job they are doing--and, 
along the way, violating constitutional rights; using excessive force; 
risking innocent lives; and, worst of all, facing no accountability?
  Colleagues, accountability isn't an inconvenience for law 
enforcement; it is imperative in a society where we entrust law 
enforcement officers with the power to take our lives, our liberty, or 
our property when warranted. Accountability is what gives law 
enforcement the legitimacy in a democracy, but that is not what is 
going on today.
  Just a couple of weeks ago, it was reported that the FBI will no 
longer investigate confrontations with immigration enforcement agents. 
Instead, Homeland Security will do the investigating to determine 
whether officers or agents have broken the law. If true, how is that 
supposed to inspire confidence or legitimacy? After all, it has been 6 
months since the killing of Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Goode, and 
still nobody has been held accountable for those deaths.
  Let me repeat their names: Alex Pretti, Renee Nicole Good, Ruben Ray 
Martinez, Silverio Villegas Gonzalez, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, Joan 
Sebastian Guerrero.
  God, I pray there is not more to come.
  How many more need to die before this administration recognizes, 
acknowledges, and admits that something is deeply wrong?
  Another important point I want to make today is that these failures 
don't end on the streets in our communities; they are also happening 
inside the walls of detention facilities, where as of yesterday, at 
least 54 people have died since the beginning of this administration.
  The year 2025 was a record year--not a good record--the most deaths 
in ICE custody in a calendar year, and we are on track to exceed that 
in 2026. At this moment, more than 67,000 people are being held in 
overcrowded and understaffed facilities, where many are denied access 
to healthy food, clean water, even basic medical care--forget about 
lifesaving care for people with extreme conditions, folks that I have 
seen and talked to personally, suffering from injuries they sustained 
when being taken into custody because of the cruelty and the violence 
of how it is being done.
  And reporting just this morning from the Associated Press shows us 
more than 50 parents and spouses of Active-Duty servicemembers have 
been detained since the beginning of the second Trump administration, 
and at least six have been deported.
  Think about that. Their sons and daughters, husbands and wives are 
willing to put their lives on the line for this country during wartime, 
no less, and the Trump administration is rewarding their service by 
detaining and deporting their family members.
  Yet, despite all this, Donald Trump and those around him keep 
repeating the lie that they are only going after ``the worst of the 
worst.''
  It is not true. Even Federal courts have found that the conditions in 
these detention facilities, by the way, are unacceptable. A Federal 
district court judge in California just ordered improvements to basic 
needs like access to clean water, nutritious food, and medical and 
disability care in the Adelanto ICE Processing Center, basic standards 
of humanity that are both Federal law and international law.
  In February, a similar order to provide access to medical care was 
issued regarding the large detention center in California, the one 
located in California City. But just last week, we learned from a 
neutral court-appointed monitor that ICE is failing to comply with that 
order.
  This administration just doesn't care.
  Despite these deaths, despite these conditions, and despite the 
enormous human toll, the administration is actually doubling down. ICE 
arrested 51,000 people in the month of July, the largest in a single 
month in DHS history. And again, the vast majority are not dangerous, 
violent criminals.
  So we have a historic number of arrests coupled with a historic 
number of deaths in ICE custody, and this administration has the 
audacity to ignore court orders to provide basic care and dignity to 
the people that it is cramming into these detention facilities.
  And on top of all that, the Republican majority in this Congress has 
given ICE and Border Patrol more than $150 billion with no 
accountability, no safeguards required. So they don't even have to come 
back to Congress to justify their funding requests and answer questions 
for the next 3 years.
  ICE is now expanding detention facilities while continuing to carry 
out these mass enforcement operations across the country.
  They are failing. They are failing the humanity test. They are being 
ordered by Federal courts to do the job right. They are doubling down 
and growing their operation.
  And we now know that over 300,000 Haitian immigrants are now facing 
arrests and deportation after the Trump administration has ripped away 
their temporary protected status.
  Colleagues, how many people need to die at the hands of ill-trained, 
unqualified, and unaccountable Federal agents and inside inhumane 
detention centers before we as a Congress--at least the Senate--say: 
Enough.
  Before we call for accountability and demand commonsense reforms, 
what is it going to take? Because our proposals are out there, like my 
VISIBLE Act which says immigration enforcement officials have to have 
very clear, very visible identification, something that is standard for 
law enforcement Agencies nationwide.
  If a group of masked individuals in unmarked cars runs you off the 
road, jumps out of their cars with guns drawn, and starts screaming in 
your face without any way to easily and quickly know that they are 
Federal agents, of course somebody is going to panic.
  We just saw that exact scenario play out in Houston a few weeks ago. 
Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was driving in his van on his way to work when 
two unmarked cars without sirens or lights began chasing him, 
eventually blocking his car on a small side street.
  As he was trying to turn around, they shot him and killed him. 
Without any clear identification, how could Lorenzo know that these 
cars chasing him belonged to law enforcement?
  As one expert reviewing the footage of this chase from public cameras 
said, it ``looks more like a carjacking attempt than it [is] a police 
stop.''
  And we wonder why some people panic.
  That is exactly why we need basic standards for Federal law 
enforcement like those called for in Senator Booker's Federal Law 
Enforcement Standards and Accountability Act.

[[Page S4453]]

  And for the protection of agents and civilians alike, law enforcement 
needs to have the body cameras and to have them turned on, which the 
FOCUS Act would require. These are the kinds of basic safeguards that 
Democrats have been proposing over and over again, but the 
administration and the Republican majority doesn't want to act on it.
  Now, we have a lot of policy debates here in Congress, but too often, 
we lose sight of the people behind the headlines and the people behind 
the statistics that are impacted by these policies.
  Joan Sebastian Guerrero was one of those people, as are thousands of 
others living in fear today: mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, 
brothers, sisters. They are our friends. They are our coworkers and 
neighbors, all human beings deserving of basic dignity and humanity.
  Last month, Joan Sebastian Guerrero got into his car expecting just a 
normal, regular day, and now his daughter will grow up in a world 
without him in it. She carries his memory with her for the rest of her 
life--not only of him, but how he was taken from her. She will remember 
that forever.
  Colleagues, I implore that we remember as well. Let's learn from it 
and do everything possible to keep it from happening again because we 
are a nation of laws that need to be enforced, but a nation of laws 
includes being a nation of due process, of accountability, and above 
all, human dignity.
  We should never accept an America where Federal agents hide their 
faces, abuse their authority, or take life without oversight and 
accountability.
  It is a choice, folks, that we are making. What kind of a country are 
we working toward? It is a choice that this administration and 
congressional Republicans have made of what we are seeing on the 
streets. America deserves better. America deserves better.
  I yield the floor.