Fighting Dhs Immigration Raids
Floor Speech
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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.
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.
Jayapal).
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Mrs. RAMIREZ. Mr. Speaker, I thank the Congresswoman for her leadership.
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Mrs. RAMIREZ. Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Espaillat for his constant leadership on this issue.
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Mrs. RAMIREZ. Salinas).
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Mrs. RAMIREZ. Mr. Speaker, I thank the Congresswoman for her leadership.
I now yield to the gentlewoman from North Carolina (Ms. Adams).
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Mrs. RAMIREZ. Mr. Speaker, I agree with the Congresswoman.
Mr. Speaker, I now yield to the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. McGarvey).
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Mrs. RAMIREZ. Mr. Speaker, I thank the Congressman for his words.
Mr. Speaker, I now yield to the gentlewoman from Oregon (Ms. Dexter).
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Mrs. RAMIREZ. Mr. Speaker, I thank the Congresswoman for her words.
Rivas).
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Mrs. RAMIREZ. Pressley).
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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.
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.
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.
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Mrs. RAMIREZ. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from New York (Ms. Clarke) for her leadership.
Tokuda).
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Mrs. RAMIREZ. Mr. Speaker, may those that quote Scripture remember what the Scripture says.
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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.
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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.
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