At Wednesday's House Judiciary Committee hearing, Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) promoted an ICE detention reform provision, while mocking Republican silence.
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00:00Mr. Chairman, this is a very important amendment.
00:06The administration's...
00:07The amendment's been important and everyone's been simple, so keep...
00:09Yeah, that's what we've been trying to point out, but I don't know, you all aren't...
00:13You're sitting on your hands over there.
00:15This administration's immigration policies are extraordinarily harmful and traumatizing,
00:19and the bill would increase that harm immensely, giving ICE a $45 billion slush fund for detention.
00:26Just to put that into context, ICE's annual budget for immigration detention is less than $3.5 billion.
00:34So this is a massive increase, and the increase alone is bad,
00:38but I just want to point out something very important, which is that the policy changes
00:43that the majority is trying to slip into their so-called funding bill are even worse.
00:50So my amendment would strike the provision that allows for families to be detained
00:55indefinitely.
00:58This provision would overturn the Flores Settlement Agreement,
01:02which has helped protect children in government custody for nearly 30 years.
01:06The Flores Settlement Agreement's principal purpose is to ensure that children are released
01:12from immigration detention as quickly as possible, recognizing the harm to children.
01:17Children in the custody of the DHS have to be placed in the, quote, least restrictive setting,
01:26and they are not allowed to be detained for more than 20 days.
01:30But this bill actually makes a very important policy change, and it gets rid of that requirement.
01:38It allows families to be detained throughout their immigration proceedings through their removal
01:43if they're ordered removal.
01:45But with the immigration court backlog, that means that families could be stuck in detention for years.
01:52Now, family detention has historically been used only for arriving families,
01:58families, but now Trump is incarcerating families who have already been living in our communities
02:04as friends and neighbors for years.
02:07One of the youngest children being detained is only one year old.
02:12One year old child being put into detention.
02:15That is unacceptable, especially considering that much of the families detained under this provision
02:22and much of the new money provided for immigration detention is going to go straight to private,
02:27for-profit prison companies.
02:30For-profit, privately owned prison companies are incentivized to make as much money as possible,
02:36often at the expense of the health and protection of individuals forced into their care.
02:41Private immigration detention facilities lack necessary oversight.
02:45They're often unsafe.
02:46And time and time again, that has led to a lack of sufficient health care and resources
02:51for detained individuals.
02:53Some of the most egregious abuses that we hear about of immigrants happen in detention facilities
03:00that are run by these for-profit private companies.
03:04Unnecessary medical interventions, forced labor, abuse of solitary confinement,
03:10and intimidation have run rampant.
03:13You might remember a case in Georgia.
03:15Mr. Johnson was with me when we went to visit where immigrant women were being forced into sterilization procedures.
03:25Experts hired by the DHS office, that detention center, by the way,
03:28we were able to shut down thanks to our advocacy.
03:31Experts hired by the DHS office for civil rights and civil liberties,
03:35an office that the Trump administration closed without any congressional input or consent,
03:41conducted secret inspections of these detention facilities.
03:44Their investigation contains over 1,600 pages detailing conditions in these facilities,
03:50which they describe as, quote, barbaric and negligent.
03:55Private prison companies owe their first duty to their shareholders, not to the people they detain.
04:00They prioritize profits over people in care.
04:02And that is clear from a recent report in which medical experts determined that 95% of in-custody deaths that ICE reported between 2017 and 2021 were actually preventable.
04:16And of the 15 immigration detention centers with the highest number of deaths during this period,
04:2213 are run by private prison companies, including a facility near my district, the GEO-run Northwest ICE Processing Center.
04:30I'm sure it's a total coincidence, but in 2024, GEO Group's PAC gave nearly $4 million to Republican campaign groups.
04:40And they're poised to make hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer money from the bill's detention expansion.
04:47The Flores Settlement Agreement has guided our government's policies for detaining children for over a quarter of a century.
04:52And I want to be clear about what it looks like for kids before.
04:56When the Flores case was filed in 1985, children were held in indefinite detention in poor conditions without access to basic medical treatment.
05:05They were handcuffed, they were strip searched, subjected to body cavity searches,
05:09and required to sleep in areas and share bathrooms with adults that they didn't know.
05:14I can't imagine that that's something that anyone on this committee would want.
05:18And I would ask for the support of our Republican colleagues to prevent the overturning of Flores.
05:25I yield back.
05:27General Lee yields back.
05:28General Lee from Pennsylvania is recognized.
05:29I would, I move to strike the last word.
05:32General Lee is recognized.
05:33I wholeheartedly endorse Representative Jayapal's amendment.
05:38Anyone who has worked with kids who've been caught in the immigration system,
05:44anyone who has met children who've been held even briefly in a detention center know how much damage that does to these children.
05:55Lifelong trauma.
05:57We've heard testimony before this committee in the past when there were efforts to detain children in violation of the Flores Agreement.
06:06So we can just go back to this committee's own records and testimony from Homeland Security officials.
06:13This is not something that the United States of America should ever be a party to.
06:18And so I would urge adoption of this amendment.
06:21Would the gentleman, would the gentleman yield?
06:24Yes.
06:24I just have a question.
06:25I'm wondering if you think that everyone on the committee has actually read this bill,
06:31because this is a policy, this is a policy provision that's being slipped in as, you know, as part of a funding bill.
06:41And I'm just curious whether, whether you think our colleagues on the other side have read,
06:46I mean, none of them are talking tonight.
06:48Otherwise, I would yield to anybody on the other side to answer that question.
06:51That sounds like it could be problematic on the Senate side with the Byrd rule.
06:56Well, exactly right.
06:57I think that there's a really important question about what happens in the Senate.
07:03But I would just urge my, I can't believe any of my colleagues on the other side would want to detain kids.
07:10I don't know if anyone over there wants to respond.
07:15Doesn't seem like anybody is talking tonight.
07:19I think they.
07:19Mr. Van Drew is looking like he really wants to, but he is trying to sit on his hands.
07:24Mr. Van Drew, please.
07:25Van Drew has never stayed this quiet for this long.
07:27No, I mean.
07:28Everyone's going to buy me a drink for this.
07:30Well, you know, I mean, I want to come back to just the serious question of whether you all think that kids should be detained.
07:38Because the Flores Agreement has existed for decades and it existed specifically because we had kids who were being handcuffed and stripped, strip searched and subjected to body cavity searches and required to sleep in areas and share bathrooms with adults that they didn't know.
07:57And I'm thinking that because I'm the eternal optimist that maybe some of you over there don't want to vote for that and would vote with me on my amendment to, you know, make sure that we do not overturn the Flores Amendment in this and that we actually preserve this important agreement.
08:16I don't know, Ms. Scanlon, it's your time, but I'll yield back to you.
08:19But I just, I don't know if there's any other way to get people over there to answer the question about whether they've actually read the bill.
08:27Well, and I think there's been a fundamental misunderstanding about what is the Flores Agreement.
08:32The Flores Agreement came out of a lawsuit about what was appropriate treatment for children.
08:38That's right.
08:39And it was a way of the U.S. dealing with the fact that the treatment that was being afforded to children before the Flores Agreement was unconstitutional, was a serious violation of not just their rights, but of their physical and mental health.
08:54I mean, the testimony that we've heard about children being held in inappropriate situations that are not appropriate for anyone, but much less a child.
09:06Again, it is just not something that I think the United States of America should be party to.
09:12Will the General Lady yield?
09:13Yes.
09:13Because there's an additional problem on top of this, which I think Ms. Jayapal very incisively got to, which is that by increasing the budget for immigration detention, I think you said from $3.5 billion to $45 billion,
09:32what is clear is our government does not have anywhere close to enough prison beds to use all that money.
09:43So that money, designated for immigration detention of children, is going to be outsourced to private prisons.
09:53So children are going to be indefinitely imprisoned in private prisons built for profit with substandard conditions, certainly not at all prepared for children or organized and arranged and oriented for children.
10:17And so we have so many multiple levels of problems here with this bill that this amendment would solve, which I think is very important for us to consider.
10:29I yield back.
10:30Mr. Chair.
10:32Time of the...
10:34My time expired.
10:36Gentle lady.
10:38Gentle lady from Vermont is recognized.
10:41I move to strike the last word.
10:42I yield to my colleague from...
10:47Pennsylvania.
10:49Pennsylvania.
10:49I'm just getting tired.
10:51Pennsylvania, Ms. Scanlon.
10:52Well, I just wanted to note, I think Mr. Goldman has raised a really interesting point.
10:56To the extent that this billion and billion of dollars of slush fund then becomes available to fund private prisons through companies like GEO,
11:08isn't this another instance where we may have to start monitoring our colleagues' stock purchases?
11:16Because I think I recall that once these executive orders started going into effect,
11:22we started seeing more stock purchases by our colleagues across the aisle of GEO and these other...
11:29Another one, if I may request the time, is Palantir, which is a large tech company that was started by some of the supporters of the president
11:49who are close with other billionaires who have been put in the administration
11:56and clearly are advising the president on just about everything.
12:02And a certain member of the Republican Party from Georgia purchased Palantir stock.
12:13And as I understand the fact pattern, I could be wrong.
12:18That's why we have due process, because, you know, I would not be the one who would determine whether this is right or wrong.
12:25A couple weeks after making this purchase, this Palantir company entered into a $30 billion agreement with the Department of Homeland Security.
12:37This Republican member from Georgia sits on the Homeland Security Committee,
12:44which is the committee that oversees the Department of Homeland Security, which entered into this $30 billion.
12:51My understanding is that last check, that stock had increased by 48% since that deal was announced.
13:00And so since we have a slush fund going from $3.5 billion to $45 billion that will almost all go to private prisons,
13:14certainly this is something we would need a strong inspector general to oversee, right,
13:22to make sure that the Department of Homeland Security is not procuring that money in any wasteful, fraudulent, or abusive way.
13:33Is that your view as well, Ms. Ganlin?
13:36Absolutely.
13:37I mean, the combination of the possibility that the money would go to those kind of private interests
13:41that have been so, you know, making all those donations to the president and his inaugural fund and everything,
13:48or funding more placements in El Salvador or other inhumane prisons,
13:55I think for all those reasons we should be cutting off this funding.
13:58May I ask another question?
14:00You mentioned the funding for the El Salvador prisons.
14:05I assume that you're referring to the fact that this administration is using taxpayer money
14:12to pay for El Salvador to house undocumented immigrants who were removed from our country
14:22without any court appearance and without any due process.
14:28And one of them, as we all know, has gotten a lot of attention is Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
14:33The reason he's gotten a lot of attention is because there was a withholding order
14:39on his deportation order that specifically said he could not be deported to El Salvador
14:46because there was a legitimate fear of persecution if he were sent to El Salvador.
14:55And he has subsequently, he was sent there.
14:58My understanding is the administration admitted that he was sent there in error.
15:04I think they called it a mistake, quote unquote.
15:07And the courts all the way up to the Supreme Court have ruled that it was a violation
15:15of the fundamental right to due process.
15:18And the Supreme Court said that the administration must facilitate his return.
15:23And Ms. Scanlon, my question for you, since you mentioned the payment,
15:27the taxpayer money that is going to pay for Mr. Abrego Garcia to stay there,
15:32is would it qualify, in your view, to facilitate if the administration told El Salvador that they
15:40would not pay for Mr. Abrego Garcia to stay there anymore?
15:45That would seem to make sense.
15:47And it would certainly be consistent with the reporting.
15:50We're seeing that it's not consistent with the conditions that even the El Salvador government
15:56had agreed to in that case.
15:58So I thank the gentlelady for the time.
16:01Gentlelady's time has expired.
16:03Gentlelady from California is recognized.
16:06I move to strike the last word.
16:07I would like to continue to engage in this questioning.
16:11And I have a question for the gentlewoman from Pennsylvania.
16:17You know, in California, there are actually instances where dozens, dozens,
16:23maybe even hundreds of unaccompanied minors are in detention centers.
16:28And in fact, you know, we have been told, although the federal government is being very evasive
16:32in allowing us access, but we have been told that they've been trying to force cities,
16:41my city, to continue to hold these young children.
16:45And I don't believe they have been provided access to representation.
16:51Welfare checks are not being allowed.
16:53There's no kind of adult supervision of these young children.
16:58And so I was just wondering, A, concern that this administration is trying to force cities
17:04and states into collusion with it, with this illegal, unconstitutional, and dangerous behavior,
17:12especially when we're talking about young children.
17:16And can you talk about, you know, how really disastrous this would be for the country
17:22and why supporting your kind of amendment would allow folks to stand up to what this administration
17:29is doing when it comes to young children?
17:31And I'm so curious about this because in the last, the first term of this administration,
17:38they seem to not want to continue to show images of children in cages,
17:44and yet they are still doing that to young children, but they don't want anyone to talk about it.
17:53You know, I think we've talked quite a bit about what happens when you are detaining children,
17:59when you're not providing them with the appropriate supports, mental health supports,
18:04food, clothing, and emotional support.
18:08I mean, it's the kind of thing that the International Treaty on the Rights of the Child,
18:14which almost every nation in the world has affirmed, except for the United States,
18:21it's the kind of thing that that is designed to prevent
18:25so that we are not damaging children who aren't able to fend for themselves.
18:34It certainly yields back the question.
18:35It certainly yields back the question.