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Floor Speech

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Mr. PADILLA. Mr. President, 1 year ago tomorrow, you may recall that I was in the Federal building in West Los Angeles, on business, awaiting a scheduled briefing, when I was physically forced out of a press conference. I was forced to the ground and handcuffed--not because I had broken any laws, mind you, but for the simple fact that I tried to ask a question of then-Homeland Security Secretary Noem.

I was in that building--I was in that office--in my capacity as a U.S. Senator for a scheduled briefing with the four-star general in charge of U.S. Northern Command because I was seeking answers and had been seeking answers not just for days but for weeks and months on what had become an unprecedented, unlawful, cruel immigration enforcement campaign that Donald Trump had unleashed on Los Angeles.

You will remember the visuals of masked ICE agents not identifying themselves and of CBP officers who were armed as if they were heading into war, indiscriminately stopping people, sweeping up immigrants-- undocumented immigrants, legal immigrants, even some U.S. citizens. But they didn't care because they were going after anyone who looked like an immigrant. They were knocking down doors to homes without having signed judicial warrants. They were breaking the windows of cars and dragging people out of their vehicles. They were raiding worksites, the parking lots of home improvement stores, even public parks where kids and families were playing. This was all happening in a matter of days in Los Angeles.

It seemed like the administration was just doing one thing after another to escalate tensions. The President not only federalized and deployed National Guard troops into Los Angeles to assist with this ``mission,'' but at one point, Active-Duty marines were sent into Los Angeles, but it was not for public safety reasons, as this was done against the wishes of the Governor, against the wishes of the mayor, and against the wishes of the police chief and the sheriff.

So, yes, I wanted answers--answers that weren't coming from the Department of Homeland Security here in the Senate during formal committee hearings and answers that weren't coming in response to formal inquiries that we had made as Senators or in response to letters that had been submitted by me and by several of my colleagues.

Instead, as I was in the Federal building awaiting a briefing and was told my briefing was delayed because the general was in a press conference with the Secretary of Homeland Security, I thought: Well, let me try to go in and listen. Maybe I will hear some of the information that I had been trying so hard to get.

So I was escorted by a National Guard member and an FBI agent to the press conference, where I stood to the side quietly and just listened. I heard not for the first time and not even for the first time that day that Secretary Noem shared with the public that the mission of this operation was to ``liberate'' Los Angeles from its duly-elected leaders. At that moment, I was compelled to speak up because that is not enforcing the law; that is an abuse of the U.S. military and of Federal law enforcement--a reflection of the desires of a wannabe dictator.

As you have seen from the video, before I could even get a question out, they did their best to try to silence me. They were sending a message. This wasn't just about me. They were trying to make clear to anybody in Los Angeles and anybody throughout California and anybody throughout the country what can happen if you dare disagree with this administration, because they don't like being questioned. That is for sure. They think they are above the law. They think the rule of law does not apply to them.

The good news is that is not what the American people believe. As one point of evidence, 2 days after that Homeland Security press conference experience, there was the first of the No Kings days that we have seen in the United States this last year--millions of people taking to the streets in their communities and cities across the country to declare ``No Kings.'' Instead of being scared into silence, they did not feel intimidated; they stepped up, and they spoke out.

The American people have continued to speak out for our rights ever since. Across the country, Americans have been looking out for their friends, for their neighbors, for their coworkers, and for their communities. They have been documenting a lot of the abuses that they have seen in an effort to hold not just Federal agents but the Federal Government accountable. They have been speaking up for our rights through organizing and protesting--and not just in locations where raids and apprehensions and arrests have been taking place. We now see mobilizations around detention facilities, where we have heard reports of brutal, unsanitary, and inhumane conditions.

Just a couple of weeks ago, my colleague from New Jersey Senator Kim was out there with protesters. Again, he was the victim of cruelty, unnecessary physical abuse against a Member of the Senate. No American should have to experienced that.

What we have also seen at this time, again, is not just the mobilization of the American people, the voice of the American people, but we have seen the impact on the President's approval ratings and on his polling.

In this administration, I grant you, by the numbers, the President enjoyed strong approval ratings when it came to immigration, generally speaking. Flash-forward to today, and poll after poll shows that he is at historically low approval ratings both overall but especially when it comes to the cruelty of his immigration agenda.

It turns out that when Americans witness the President's policies not as he campaigned on--remember, he talked about going after the worst of the worst, but what we have seen in practice is anything but. So when we see the reality of what Donald Trump is doing, Americans don't approve. They don't approve of troops being deployed into American cities. They don't approve of Federal agents making indiscriminate stops, arrests, detentions, or even deportations. They don't approve of families being torn apart, of people being assaulted or pepper-sprayed and arrested for exercising their First Amendment rights. They don't approve of indiscriminate profiling of people based on their skin color.

It is shameful that there is now a term--the ``Kavanaugh stops.'' A Supreme Court Justice sanctioned stops based on one's appearance, accent, occupation.

You don't enforce the law by violating the law. That is racial profiling, plain and simple.

And, of course, the American people have been horrified when they see U.S. citizens--including Alex Pretti and Renee Good--shot and killed in broad daylight by Federal agents for exercising their First Amendment rights.

This country has recoiled from this cruelty because this is not who we are as a country. We are better than this.

And, sadly, we know this administration pays close attention to their polling numbers, so they know public opinion has turned. Instead of rectifying, instead of being smarter on this, more responsible on this, they are simply just changing tactics. And what was once happening in plain sight is now intentionally being played out in areas that are a lot less visible--certainly not visible to the public.

We have learned recently, for instance, that immigration courts are scheduling massive mega master hearings is what they are calling them. Instead of a judge processing maybe 15 cases at a time--that is a significant workload--now they are hearing 100 or more. Oh, and by the way, there is also a lot fewer judges hearing these cases because the administration has fired more than 100 judges.

You combine fewer judges with less access to counsel by people who have a right to counsel, it comes down to the denial of true due process. That is their recipe for ramming through and ramping up deportations.

They are also trying to shut down legal immigration altogether. Let me repeat that. They are trying to shut down legal immigration by making it harder to seek asylum or even apply for a green card when you are eligible. They are increasingly targeting DACA recipients. With over 260 that have been swept up this last year and at least 86 of them deported from the only home they have ever known.

Even worse--again, adding to the cruelty--this administration is also running out the clock on renewing their DACA protections to the point where the protections expire and they become not just unemployable but far more susceptible to deportation.

But nothing exemplifies this administration's ongoing cruelty more than the conditions at detention centers like the Adelanto ICE Processing Center in my home State of California; the Dilley Detention Center in Texas filled with children; and, of course, Delaney Hall in New Jersey that has been in the news of late. We are constantly hearing reports about how overcrowded and unsanitary these facilities are. We are hearing about detainees given food that is infested with mold or maggots, inadequate access to clean drinking water, and how many are being denied medical care, including critical medical care.

The damage this administration is doing is incalculable. We do know that conditions in these facilities have contributed to the deaths of 51 detainees since the start of the second Trump administration--19 of them just in this year alone.

Again, most of these people do not have a criminal record. I have got to point that out because, again, for all the talk by President Trump, by the White House, by DHS, by a lot of our Republican colleagues about going after the ``worst of the worst.'' If this administration was only targeting the dangerous, violent criminals that they so often talk about, there would be no debate. There would be no discussion because there would be no disagreements.

But the fact of the matter is the vast majority of the people that have been detained, that have been arrested, that have been deported, do not have violent criminal convictions.

And to the cruelty of the kicking down the door of your home, the terror of the broken car window and being dragged out, the pain of somebody being detained for days or weeks or months with challenging contact with family or lawyers, the conditions in these detention facilities--the vast majority of people that have been subject to this are not dangerous, violent criminals. Many may be undocumented, but they are otherwise hard-working, tax-paying, family-raising contributors to communities and our economy.

Last year was the deadliest year for people in ICE detention, and this year we are on track to surpass even that record.

And now on top of that, we learned just yesterday that this administration has detained 500 babies and toddlers who are now in ICE custody. That is right, 500 babies and toddlers locked up in these ICE facilities. Are they the ``worst of the worst''? No. Are they the transnational gang leaders? Really? Babies and toddlers.

Look, all immigrants are human beings and deserve to be treated like it. They deserve better than what this administration is doing, which is why it is important for Americans to keep speaking out, exposing these abuses. Because exposing these abuses is part of our responsibility; stopping them is the other responsibility.

The American people deserve a better vision and a better plan for immigration than what this administration is delivering. The American people deserve and expect a plan that is rooted not in fear, but one that is rooted both in security and dignity, a plan that doesn't strive to just be tough on immigration for the sake of being tough, but one that is smarter on immigration policy and how we administer it.

We can secure our borders, but let's do it in a way that is secure and orderly and humane, while ensuring pathways to seek safety for those who need it. That has been the tradition of our country.

We can and must modernize our legal immigration system to keep up with global competition while protecting American workers. Those two objectives are not mutually exclusive; they do go hand in hand.

We must ensure the law affords due process and keeps families together.

We must provide a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers, for farm workers, and other long-term residents of the United States.

You know, I am not naive enough to suggest that all this is easily done, but we have to keep trying because the status quo confronting us today is clearly not working. Before we can even begin the work of modernizing our immigration system, we have to confront the abuses that are happening right before us. Again, it is not one or the other; we have to strive to do both.

The need for stronger oversight of ICE and CBP--which had been allowed to get away with far too much for too long--is undeniable. The need to ensure independent scrutiny of detention centers and these awful conditions is undeniable. But, again, DHS is putting up roadblocks even for Members of Congress to conduct our oversight responsibility in these Federal facilities. We need stronger protections for the civil liberties and the constitutional rights that define us as Americans, beginning with the First Amendment.

And should the American people vote Democrats into the majority next election, Democrats will wield every tool in our power to achieve these reforms.

But the most important thing that we can do as Americans in the meantime is to never stop speaking up in the face of cruelty and injustice.

Again, 1 year ago tomorrow, I was handcuffed for trying to ask a question. Not a day goes by that I don't see somebody here in Washington, in California, or many places in between, that they don't come up to me--complete strangers--acknowledging what happened and how it hurt them.

I thank them for sharing. I thank them for caring. And I remind them: Don't just remember that I was put to the ground and handcuffed, remember what happened immediately after. I got back up, and I spoke out. And I have continued to speak out, not because I am particularly brave, not because I am particularly determined, but because the people expect and deserve answers and they deserve leaders who, like them, refuse to be intimidated into silence.

A lot of the television cameras have moved on from what is happening in communities. The headlines have faded because there is no shortage of challenges that this country is confronting from the threats of wars abroad, an unauthorized war the President has dragged us into, economic pain; right? We talked a lot about the cost of groceries, the cost of housing, the cost of healthcare, the cost of utilities that working families are struggling with.

But the need for oversight on the Department of Homeland Security-- and ICE and CBP especially--is absolutely there. The need for accountability remains. The need to defend due process and civil liberties and basic human dignity has not faded away.

One year ago, this administration tried to send a message, again, not just to me, to the country. And for the past year, I am so proud that the American people have been sending a message right back to the President.

And as long as I have the privilege of serving in this Chamber, I will continue to do the same. I will continue to stand by the American people and to keep asking questions and demanding answers. We have a lot of work to do. Let's keep going.

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