Authority Without Accountability

Floor Speech

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Mr. GARCIA of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, it is with a heavy heart that I rise today with both anger and urgency.

What we are witnessing in this country is not law enforcement. It is violence followed by lies. It is authority without accountability.

Since Trump returned to power, at least 36 people have died in ICE custody, and 2 have been shot and killed by ICE agents. These are not just numbers. They are lives, people with families. We must say their names, tell their stories, and stop state-sanctioned violence.

Last week in Minneapolis, a 37-year-old American mother, Renee Good, was killed by an ICE agent. It was caught on video for the world to see. Almost immediately, the lies began.

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said that Renee Good posed an imminent threat, even floating the words ``domestic terrorism.'' Yet, the facts don't back this up. Eyewitnesses don't back this up. The video doesn't back up the lies repeated by DHS immediately after the killing.

State law enforcement in Minnesota have been blocked from the vehicle where Renee was killed because the FBI sealed it off, blocking transparency and accountability.

Renee Good's murder is not an isolated incident. In my community, we know this pattern all too well. In September, Silverio Villegas Gonzalez, a father of two, was killed by ICE on the side of a road in my district after dropping off his kids at school. Right on cue, we got the same script: immediate vague allegations by DHS, lies instead of facts, no transparency, no accountability, and no respect for the family left behind.

There was also Marimar Martinez, another constituent. An ICE agent shot her five times and then arrested her. ICE leveled serious criminal accusations to justify it. Later, quietly, those charges were dropped. Why? It was because they were lies, but the damage was done. Her name was dragged through the mud. Her family was terrorized. Her community is still shaken.

This was how a teacher in our community was victimized, and it didn't stop there.

Juan Espinoza Martinez, also from my district, was accused of serious conspiracy to commit crimes that never happened. ICE made them up and publicly smeared his name. Those charges were dropped as well because they were false. There was no apology, no discipline, and no consequences.

ICE acts first and then lies. The lie sets the frame. The truth is forced to play defense.

In 2025, Republicans gave ICE $75 billion, a nearly 300 percent increase in its annual budget, at the same time that they stripped millions of Americans of their healthcare. Republicans now want to give ICE and Border Patrol even more money.

We are asked to fund an agency that does the following: sends masked agents into communities like my neighborhood to use loaded guns and tear gas against our neighbors. It arrests people without warrants. It engages in obscene racial profiling and discrimination that communities see clearly, even when Washington looks away. It stops Members of Congress from inspecting detention centers, which is their duty as a coequal branch of government.

These facts should outrage every Member of this House. If you believe in the rule of law, you should be furious. If you believe in congressional oversight, you should be furious. If you believe that Federal agencies should not lie to justify violence, you should be furious because when an agency lies to the public, lies to the courts, and lies to Congress, they are spitting in our faces.

This is not about being for or against immigration enforcement. This is about whether we tolerate violence followed by coverups. This is about whether or not we accept fabricated charges as a means of intimidation.

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