Ice Turns Courthouses Into Traps
Floor Speech
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Ms. BALINT. Mr. Speaker, right now, ICE is showing up at courthouses across the country, waiting to arrest people after their official immigration hearings.
Is this what we thought we would see in America? ICE officials lying in wait to grab people who are actually following the rules? In some cases, these people had just had their cases dismissed.
They walk into court, following the rules, doing what they were told, following the legal pathways, and they are being taken into unmarked cars and fast-tracked for deportation.
Let's be clear: This isn't about catching dangerous criminals. It was never about catching dangerous criminals.
These are moms, dads, students, grandparents, workers, people who are trying to get through the legal process the right way, but ICE is turning our courthouses into traps.
The very places that immigrants are supposed to go to follow a legal path to citizenship have now become traps to lure people in so that they can be arrested, detained, and disappeared.
ICE tricked a Vermonter, Mohsen Mahdawi. He has been legally in our State for 10 years. He showed up for the final step in his citizenship process only to have masked men detain him after he exited the courthouse. He knew it was a risk to show up, but he decided it was worth the risk to maybe finally become an American.
Imagine going to court, following the process, and then getting arrested the second you step outside. That is what is happening in America right now.
Last month, in San Francisco, four asylum-seekers were taken by ICE after their hearings were over. In New York City, even a city official, Comptroller Brad Lander, was detained by ICE while trying to support an immigrant friend.
If they are willing to rough up city officials, mayors, and even a sitting U.S. Senator, what does that mean for the rest of us? These tactics are to scare people. People are now afraid to go to court.
How does that possibly make our country more safe? People are skipping hearings, risking automatic deportation, because they don't trust the system anymore. How is anyone supposed to follow the legal steps if even those are now a risk?
Republicans claim over and over again in committees that this is only about illegal immigration. It is not. If that were the case, then they would be just as outraged as I am that people are being snatched outside of their court hearings.
It is an attack on due process, plain and simple. It is an attack on the idea that we all deserve a fair shot in this country. It is also a clear tactic to instill fear in all of us so that we will be intimidated into submission and stop standing up for our neighbors.
ICE agents without visible ID, without any official markings on them, and with masks are acting more like vigilantes than agents of our government.
Mr. Speaker, how can we even trust that these are government officials? It is nothing more than kidnapping, and it needs to stop. There should be no more secret arrests and no more plainclothes agents waiting outside of courtrooms. This kind of thing does not happen in democracy. It doesn't.
The only way to protect Americans from these abuses is to provide due process to anyone facing deportation. Due process exists to protect American citizens and to protect all of us from wrongful deportation and wrongful detention.
This administration does not seem to care about this complete and total violation of our constitutional rights, a right that we are all entitled to, regardless of status.
Under Trump, ICE and DHS have become a means to carry out political arrests and to silence anyone that disagrees with their extreme agenda. That is what we are looking at right now. It has never been about removing the criminals. It has always been about creating mass fear and mass intimidation so they can retain more power.
This is not what Americans want. I need my Republican colleagues to fight for everyone in their district. I need them to speak up.
Mr. Speaker, where is your line?
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