Last Wednesday, members of the House Progressive Caucus held a special hour on the House floor to decry a "Constitutional Crisis" caused by President Trump.
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00:00Mr. Speaker, I rise to address the House of Representatives for a special order hour with
00:04my Congressional Progressive Caucus colleagues. And I do so on the 100th day of the Trump
00:13administration. And I note that today is a day when we receive the news that our economy
00:20has contracted and that we are witnessing, you know, confusion, chaos in our markets.
00:29And uncertainty about our economic future. But we can also mark this day by stating that
00:37our country is in the midst of a constitutional crisis. The administration is disappearing
00:43individuals without due process in defiance of court orders. They are ripping people from
00:49their homes and communities and putting them on secretive flights and sending them overseas,
00:55including more than 280 individuals sent to the brutal Sukkot prison in El Salvador without
01:02so much as a hearing. The Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the administration must facilitate
01:10the return of one such man, Kilmar Obrego Garcia, a Maryland father. But the executive branch has
01:18ignored the highest court in the land saying their own views matter more. Just last night, the President
01:25of the United States admitted in a public interview that he could return Mr. Obrego Garcia if he wanted to.
01:32But he is choosing not to. And he has openly mused about sending American citizens to El Salvador next.
01:40Because that is how it always starts, with those without power, the most vulnerable. But it never ends there.
01:47And that should terrify every American. Now I want to take the opportunity to draw attention to another case
01:56that has captured the public conscience. That of Andri Jose Hernandez Romero, who is a 31-year-old gay Venezuelan
02:08makeup artist and asylum seeker who has forcibly disappeared without due process. Andri entered the
02:15United States legally, fleeing persecution for his sexual orientation and political beliefs.
02:22He passed an initial asylum screening and had no criminal record. Yet without warning or due process,
02:29he was forcibly removed to El Salvador and imprisoned in the notorious Sukkot facility.
02:34The evidence against Andri, a couple of crown tattoos above the names Mom and Dad, symbols of his love
02:45for his hometown's Three Kings celebrations. Andri's case exemplifies the dangers of unchecked executive
02:54power and of what happens when the rule of law is pushed aside. I call on President Trump,
03:01Free Andri. But there are so many others to talk about. Students who have been snatched off the streets,
03:09young American citizens kicked out without so much as a hearing, the list goes on and on.
03:15Now I want to be clear, this is not just about immigrants, it's bigger than that.
03:19If the government can violate the Constitution with impunity in these cases, it can do so anywhere, to anyone.
03:26To the Americans listening at home, I ask you, how would you feel if masked men grabbed you in broad daylight
03:34and refused to show their ID? I know I would be terrified and I bet you would be too.
03:41So today you will hear from a number of my Congressional Progressive Caucus colleagues as we
03:47bring a spotlight to these injustices. And with that, I now yield to my colleague from Texas,
03:56Representative Escobar.
03:58Thank you, Mr. Takano. I'm so grateful for your leadership and for bringing us together on the House
04:04floor to talk about what is happening here in our country every day. Americans are sounding the alarm
04:12about the crisis that our country is in. It's not just an economic crisis as we see
04:19our country sinking very quickly into an economic crisis. And all of this is being reflected
04:29in Donald Trump's poll numbers. In fact, his sinking poll numbers are even being reflected in what is the
04:37issue that many considered to be his strong suit with the American people, which is immigration.
04:44Americans are now realizing that Donald Trump's anti-immigrant policies are targeting everyone
04:51in our country, including U.S. citizens. When Donald Trump eliminates due process for immigrants,
04:58whether it's for legal immigrants or students who are here with legitimate visas,
05:03he's impacting due process for all of us. When Donald Trump ignores an order from the Supreme Court
05:10to bring back a wrongfully deported immigrant, he's violating the rule of law, which impacts all of us.
05:17When Donald Trump sends immigrants to a gulag in a foreign country, believe him when he tells you
05:25that he will be doing this to U.S. citizens next. In fact, he's already begun deporting U.S. citizen
05:33children. And today, just today in the House Judiciary Committee, as the Judiciary Committee is marking up
05:41the reconciliation package, which unfortunately many Republicans will just blindly approve, the Judiciary
05:49Committee Republicans refuse to protect U.S. citizens from deportation. Shocking, I know.
05:57And here's the thing. We can have strong border security and a fair and humane immigration system that
06:05works for our nation. That's not what Donald Trump is doing. He's acting like a tyrant, and he will keep
06:12undermining our democracy, our country, and the rule of law as long as compliant Republicans allow him to.
06:21Will there just be four Republicans who will stand with us and their constituents to protect the
06:27Constitution, protect rule of law, protect law and order in this country? I hope so. Thank you, Mr. Tacano.
06:35I yield back. Thank you, Representative Escobar. I am outraged to hear that Republicans on the
06:42Judiciary Committee would not protect citizens from deportation. We're talking citizens.
06:48I would now like to yield to my colleague from the state of Illinois, Representative Ramirez.
06:57Thank you, Mr. Tacano. Fascism always demands a public enemy. Through lies and scapegoating,
07:05the Trump administration has tried to make immigrants the enemy. They've tried to convince us that the
07:11problem isn't their abuses of power or their unchecked greed of multinational corporations,
07:17but its immigrants. In their 100 days in office, the Trump administration and Noam, the Secretary of
07:23Homeland, have abused the power of the Department of Homeland Security to pursue a campaign of persecution,
07:30of mass incarceration, and of deportation. Day after day, they have disregarded the authority of Congress,
07:37the laws of the land, and the constitutional rights of residents, the courts, due process, and every check
07:44and balance that protects us from fascist authoritarians. No one has been spared from their abusive
07:52authoritarian assault. Not United States citizen children with cancer, not pregnant women, not fathers with
07:59legal residency, not organ donors, not student activists, not professors, not green card holders, not asylees,
08:07not DACA recipients. Trump and Noam have wasted millions of taxpayer dollars in their criminal acts from a
08:15$200 million anti-immigrant ad campaign to $46 million paid to illegally detain people in offshore prisons,
08:26to more than $300 million to militarize and end parole and due process at our borders. There is no end to how
08:35they will abuse their power and we have to say enough. As I demanded yesterday, in Homeland Committee,
08:41Noam must step down and we can't give one more dollar to this administration to continue its
08:47unconstitutional anti-immigrant authoritarian agenda. I will close with this. Today, Trump, Noam,
08:56and the administration have made the immigrants the enemy. Tomorrow, it will be whoever they deem
09:04undesirable. With that, I yield back to the gentleman from California.
09:11Thank you, Representative Ramirez, for standing up for the rule of law. I now would like to yield to
09:16my colleague from the state of Louisiana, Mr. Carter.
09:21Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thank you, Ranking Member. I rise today with great concern.
09:26Regarding our First and Fifth Amendment rights. Our constitutionally guaranteed freedom of speech
09:33and right to due process are under attack by the Musk-Trump administration.
09:40You see, you cannot like, you don't have to like what someone says, philosophically,
09:47politically or otherwise. But free speech is not based on what you like or dislike,
09:53or choose to hear or not hear. It is based on one's ability to express themselves. It's not
10:00conditioned on what you like to hear. Free speech is free speech. We will not stand by
10:10while they violate the principles that form the bedrock of our democracy. Right now,
10:17this administration is defying a Supreme Court decision that ordered them to facilitate the
10:23return of an individual who was deported without due process. Alongside others, he was sent to an
10:34inhumane prison in a different country without a hearing.
10:41This happened in the United States, violating his right to due process.
10:47There are many individuals whose stories deserve to be told, so today I'm going to highlight just a few.
10:55Last week, I led a bicameral codel to two ICE detention facilities in Louisiana,
11:02where Mahmoud Khalil and Ramesa Osterk and Wendy Brito are being held. Mahmoud Khalil is a lawful
11:13permanent resident and Columbia graduate student who was detained because of his participation in a
11:21peaceful protest. I had an opportunity to sit and visit with him who said, without fear of contradiction,
11:28I am not anti-Semitic. I am not pro-Hamas. I am simply concerned about my homeland and the treatment
11:39of the people that are there. Ramesa Osterk is a PhD student, detained because she wrote an op-ed
11:48in her school newspaper. Wendy Brito, a mother of three U.S. Senator, citizens who may one day be U.S.
11:58senators. U.S. Senate, citizens right here on our homeland, deported
12:08without giving her due process. Her lawyer was in the waiting room.
12:13They would not let her have access to the lawyer. And then they added insult to injury by saying,
12:19she signed a waiver. Who and what mother would not say when asked, do you want your children to go with
12:26you? Versus being with some strangers would not opt for that option. Ms. Brito simply said,
12:35what are you going to do with my children? They said, well, they can go with you.
12:41As a father, I would have made the same decision. But her lawyer was in the other room begging for an
12:46opportunity to stand in and they would not give him or her an opportunity to do so.
12:53Arresting people in this country legally is unconstitutional. People whose only crimes
13:01have been to exercise their right to free speech. This is an assault on our civil liberties and our
13:08constitution. An attack on these individuals is an attack on all of us.
13:12Who's to say what this ruthless administration will do next or who they'll do it to?
13:21Will it be your family member, your friend, a co-worker who is taken without cause?
13:27I'm reminded of a quote from Angela Davis. If they come for you in the morning,
13:36they will come for me at night.
13:38We must all stick together and fight for the rights of our great country and this great constitution and the First
13:47Amendment of free speech and the Fifth Amendment of due process. We must continue speaking up and
13:53fighting back against these tyrants and preserve our constitution. And Mr. Speaker, I'm not sure if you
14:01found this funny or if you're laughing at a joke that's on your phone, but this is serious business,
14:05sir. I yield back. I thank the gentleman from Louisiana for his principled remarks about the
14:15importance of the rule of law in our country and to to enunciate that that political dissent in our
14:23country is not a crime. I now would like to yield yield to my colleague from the state of Arizona,
14:32Ms. Ansari.
14:39Mr. Speaker, last week I traveled to El Salvador along with three of my colleagues to see firsthand
14:45the chaos unleashed by the Trump administration through its unconstitutional and illegal deportations
14:51of U.S. residents to third-party countries. I represent a beautifully diverse district in which
14:5864 languages are spoken and where families of immigrants like mine thrive. I've heard more
15:04about this issue from my constituents than any other during my time in Congress. In El Salvador,
15:11we met with the U.S. ambassador and demanded that the Trump administration facilitate the release of
15:17Kilmar Abrego-Garcia in compliance with the 9-0 unanimous Supreme Court decision of the United States
15:26and the lower federal court judges. Mr. Abrego-Garcia and many other wrongfully deported individuals
15:33were sent to El Salvador with no due process, no legal recourse, just for being in the wrong place at the wrong
15:42time. It is outrageous and indefensible that the Trump administration continues to defy a Supreme
15:49Court ruling to return this man to his family. In fact, it is a full-blown constitutional crisis.
15:57There are other people, including Andre Jose Hernandez Romero, a makeup artist and legal asylum seeker,
16:05and Maruel Gutierrez, a teenager who was mistakenly picked up by immigration enforcement, languishing
16:12in El Salvador. And now the Trump administration is admitting to deporting a two-year-old U.S. citizen
16:20with cancer. It is cruel, it is despicable, and it is totally illegal, no matter what Stephen Miller or Tom
16:28Homan may say. And these cases are not just about these specific people or children sent on planes
16:36to foreign prisons by the U.S. government. Our entire system of justice hinges on the rights afforded to us
16:45by the Constitution, the rights of due process, access to legal representation, and the ability to be heard
16:53in a court of law. It is a dark day for our democracy when the federal government snatches people off of
17:01the streets, flies them out of the country secretly in the dead of night, and sends them to a foreign prison
17:08to be detained indefinitely with no legal recourse or chance to prove their case. Who's to say that it
17:16couldn't be you or me next? I will continue to speak out for due process and our constitutional rights.
17:25Thank you and I yield my time. Thank you Representative Ansari and I want to thank you for traveling with
17:32three other of our colleagues to El Salvador last week. I know that you traveled at your own expense
17:39and I'm very proud that we have members of this caucus who care so deeply about people who've been
17:47treated so unjustly. Nobody should be disappeared out of our country without habeas corpus hearings.
17:55I want to also thank Representative Carter for his efforts along with, I believe, other members of
18:02Congress to visit to visit the graduate students held in a New Orleans jail. I now would like to recognize
18:14or to yield to my colleague from the state of Minnesota, Representative Ilhan Omar.
18:22Thank you so much, Representative Takano. I am here today as a representative of a community that is
18:35deeply alarmed by the actions of this administration. Just weeks ago, the Trump administration defied a
18:42unanimous, we didn't think this was possible, but a unanimous Supreme Court order by refusing to
18:49facilitate the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland father wrongfully deported to the notorious
18:58prison in El Salvador. Despite the court's clear directive, the administration continues to ignore the rule
19:07of law, undermining the very foundation of our democracy. In my own district, the situation is equally
19:15troubling. A graduate student at the University of Minnesota was detained by ICE agents without warning.
19:23Despite having no involvement in political activism, he was taken from his home, held without immediate
19:30explanation, and had his visa retroactively revoked. This action not only disturbed his education, but also
19:41instilled fear in our academic community. These are not isolated incidents. Across the country, people are
19:50being detained and deported without due process, often based on tenuous or unverified allegations. The
20:00administration's use of upsecure laws like the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to justify these actions is a
20:08blatant abuse of power. We must ask ourselves, if the rights of non-citizens can be so easily disregarded,
20:17whose rights will be next? Our Constitution guarantees due process and equal protection under the law to
20:25everyone in this country, not just citizens. If the government can silence you, detain you, or deport you while
20:34defying court orders, then none of our rights are safe. If we let this slide, we are saying the
20:43Constitution is optional. And it is not. What we are seeing is authoritarianism creeping in through the back
20:52door, one ignored ruling at a time. My colleagues and I are ready to fight back with everything we've got.
21:02Thank you, and I yield back. Thank you, Representative Omar. The sign behind me,
21:109-0. 9-0 is the order of the Supreme Court. They ruled 9-0 that Omar Borrego must be brought back or must be
21:25facilitated back into the country. And this 9-0 Supreme Court order is being defied by the President.
21:33No one in our country, no person, no man is above the law. I now want to
21:40yield time now to my colleague from the state of Washington, Emily Randall.
21:44Thank you so much, Mr. Speaker, and gratitude to my colleague from California for leading us
21:55in this special order hour today. Fear, anger, terror, sadness, these are the emotions that just
22:04scratch the surface of what my community and our immigrant neighbors are feeling. And why should we
22:11expect anything less? This is exactly what this administration wants, to force immigrants into
22:18the shadows, to break their spirit, and to disrupt our communities. When you come for immigrants,
22:23you come for small businesses. When you come for immigrants, you come for our farm workers and for
22:29our fish processors. When you come for immigrants, you come for nurses, doctors, and caregivers.
22:36And when you come for immigrants, you come for the very identity of what makes this country America.
22:44Last week, I met with immigrants rights advocates and toured the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma.
22:50The detainee population has doubled in the last few months. The average time detained has extended.
22:57Discretionary releases are now uncommon, even for detainees, without violent criminal records. Folks are being
23:05detained and disappeared for nothing more than political speech. You want to know what this
23:11visit reaffirmed for me, Mr. Speaker? That any immigration policy rooted in hate and fueled by chaos
23:21doesn't make our immigration system more efficient or safe. It overwhelms the system. We don't fix a broken
23:31system by breaking people. Most of our origin stories, yes, even as members of the House in this body,
23:40begin as immigration stories. It's past time that all of us remember that. Thank you. And I yield back.
23:47Thank you, Representative Randall. I now would like to yield time to my colleague, my fellow Californian,
23:57Representative Luz Rivas. Thank you, Congressman Takano for recognizing me and for hosting this
24:05important discussion in front of the American people. Our country was founded on the values of life,
24:12liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. But who are we as a country if we backtrack on those founding
24:19values? We would not be the country that inspired our parents, our neighbors, and our grandparents to make
24:27a dangerous and brave journey in the hopes that their children will have a better life than they did.
24:34Everyone has a story that they can relate. Mine is about my mother who immigrated from Mexico in the
24:411960s. She raised my sister and me on her own, taking multiple jobs to make ends meet. It was not until the
24:50late 1980s when she finally got her green card. She was so happy and I remember feeling relieved because
24:58she was safe and could live in this country without fear. Today, that fear has returned. Donald Trump is
25:07blatantly pushing aside the Constitution and the rule of law to deport anybody at will. I'm here because I'm
25:16fighting for my mother and many like her who came to this country in search of a better life. I'm fighting
25:23so our immigrant communities can once and for all live without fear that their livelihoods would be taken
25:30away at a moment's notice. I'm fighting with my Congressional Progressive Caucus and Congressional
25:37Hispanic Caucus colleagues against this administration's attempts to strip away a person's right to due
25:44process. Donald Trump is criminalizing people like Abrego Garcia and denying him his due process.
25:54But it's not just Abrego Garcia. This administration is also deporting children. Last week, this administration
26:03deported a two-year-old child and a four-year-old child who was battling stage four cancer, both of
26:10whom are U.S. citizens. What is happening to Garcia and these children is a travesty and they need to come
26:18home. Sending them without due process to countries like El Salvador and Honduras is a shameful assault on
26:26our human rights and a betrayal of the ideals our country was founded on. His policies are also unpopular
26:35across the country and the polling proves it. After 100 days, Donald Trump has the lowest approval rating
26:42of any president in at least the past 80 years. The American people see through his cruelty and they
26:50are with us. We need to confront the cruelty from this administration head on and seek justice for all
26:59those who have been unfairly targeted. I stand united with my colleagues in stopping this administration
27:06and holding this president accountable for his actions. Thank you and I yield back. Thank you,
27:13Representative Rivas and thank you for bringing to light the tragic stories of children, citizen
27:20children being deported from our country, children with cancer. I now would like to yield to my
27:29colleague from the state of New York, Representative Paul Tonko. Thank you, Congressman Takano, for
27:37bringing us together this evening for a very important discussion. Kilmar, Andre, Jefferson, Kevin,
27:50a devoted father married to an American citizen, a makeup artist who faced persecution in his home
27:56country because he's gay, a man with a valid work authorization and pending asylum hearing, the son of a
28:04government worker attacked for his opposition to a corrupt regime. These are just a few of the hundreds of
28:14men who have been sent to a foreign prison with conditions so inhumane that El Salvador's justice minister has said,
28:23the only way out is in a coffin. These men came to our country, in many cases through approved legal pathways,
28:35families seeking a better life for themselves and their families. And in response, we sent them to another
28:44country without any due process to be abused and tortured. And we're paying that government six million
28:54dollars to do so. These are not deportations. They are government enforced disappearances.
29:02They are illegal. They are horrific. They are the tactics of a dictatorship, not a democracy.
29:14We cannot let them get away with this. This is the red line they cannot be allowed to cross.
29:21And with that, I yield back. Thank you, Representative Tonko. I agree with you.
29:27This is a red line that cannot be passed. We cannot permit a president to defy a 9-0 order of the Supreme Court.
29:39No person, no man is above the law. I now would like to yield to my colleague,
29:46my tremendous colleague from the state of New Jersey, Bonnie Watson Coleman.
29:49Thank you, Representative Tonko. And thank you, Takano. And thank you for doing this. This is very important.
29:57I want you to know that I rise today because the Trump administration is carrying out a campaign of reckless
30:04cruelty with zero accountability. Last week, the home of an Oklahoma woman was mistakenly targeted by ICE agents.
30:13They broke into her home, forced her and her children outside at gunpoint in their underwear,
30:19and proceeded to ransack their home. The people ICE were looking for didn't even live there.
30:25But that didn't stop them from traumatizing the current residents, confiscating their life savings,
30:33and fleeing the scene without leaving any contact information or instructions for how this innocent family
30:39could get their belongings back, including their money. More recently, over the past weekend, we learned that
30:46Trump administration's police deported a four-year-old American citizen who has stage four cancer and then
30:56lied about it. On Monday, Trump's deportation czar claimed the child's mother chose to bring her son
31:04with her when she was deported without any kind of due process. Let me be clear. That is another
31:11bald-faced lie. The truth is that this woman did what any mom would do when faced with such a terrifying
31:20situation. She tried desperately to protect her child. She pleaded with the Trump's deportation police
31:28to let her contact her family to arrange care for her son and make sure that he keeps receiving the
31:34medical treatment he desperately needs. But Trump's police said no. They denied this basic right. They
31:42would not let her call her family nor her lawyer. And as a result, her son no longer has access to his
31:51life-saving cancer treatment. It is a confounding degree of evil that we are dealing with this Trump
32:00administration and this Republican-controlled Congress that fails to find its spine and do the
32:08right thing for the people of this country. I truly cannot comprehend the heartlessness that is required to
32:15do these things like this. And I am praying for all the victims of this administration's campaign of
32:21terror and my country. And I yield back. Thank you, Representative Watson Coleman, for
32:30for informing the nation about what happened earlier today with that family in Oklahoma. It strikes me
32:39that we are witnessing this evolution of this of this administration's policies. It began with, oh,
32:48we are just going to, we're just going to deport criminals. And then it evolved into disappearing
32:57people without hearings and claiming that the people they were disappearing were criminals,
33:02dangerous criminals, members of a Trenda Agua gang. And then, but we know that there were, and they
33:10admitted there were mistakes made. But now we are seeing actual citizens, children citizens, being spirited,
33:18out of the country. And this ought to be concerning to all Americans. It's not about them anymore. It is
33:25about us. It is about every single person who is in danger of being treated in such a way that you have
33:33no way to say, I'm a citizen to a judge. How can you say I'm a citizen to a judge or I'm not a criminal to a
33:40judge when you're not even allowed to have that hearing? So let me now move on and recognize my
33:46colleague or yield to my colleague from the state of Oregon, Representative Val Hoyle. Representative.
33:55Thank you, Mr. Tucano. When we took office, we swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution.
34:03It was a promise to the American people that we would uphold the law, protect their rights,
34:08and defend our democracy. Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was legally living in the United States,
34:15was wrongfully disappeared to a horrific prison in El Salvador because of an administrative error.
34:23And this week, U.S. citizens in Oklahoma were dragged out of their home while ICE agents, with no
34:31warrant for them, took their phones, laptops and life savings, even though they weren't the suspects in
34:38question. One of the most basic rights guaranteed in our Constitution is the right to due process.
34:45The Due Process Clause in the 5th and 14th Amendment demands that you cannot be deprived of life,
34:52liberty, or property without the due process of law. And that means a fair hearing, a chance to be heard,
35:00and a chance to defend yourself in court. That is the standard. Look, our immigration system is broken,
35:07and I'll work with anyone in a bipartisan way to fix it, but that is not what's happening here.
35:14Weaponizing fears and frustrations as a justification for interning innocent people in a foreign prison
35:23is unacceptable and unconstitutional. Everyone deserves due process, in court, with evidence,
35:32beyond a reasonable doubt. And if we don't defend these rights now, who's next? Your neighbor? Your
35:39family? You? Affording due process is not being soft on crime. It is the very foundation of American
35:48justice to ensure that the rights enshrined in our Constitution are guaranteed as the founders
35:55intended. Standing up for the Constitution is not partisan. It is patriotic. It is our duty and we
36:03need to do it. Thank you, Mr. Takano, and I yield back. Thank you, Representative Hoyle. Thank you so much
36:10for standing up for the rule of law. And a reminder that in this country, under our Constitution, no one is
36:18above the law, not even the President. And our President at this very moment is defying a 9-0 Supreme
36:25Court decision. I would now like to yield to my colleague from the Aloha State, the State of Hawaii,
36:34Representative Jill Takuda. Thank you. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong opposition
36:41to President Trump's unlawful and unjust deportations to El Salvador. Earlier this year,
36:46the administration invoked the Alien Enemies Act, an 18th-century wartime statute to deport 137
36:53Venezuelan men to a notorious prison abroad. This archaic law is being exploited to bypass our
36:59immigration system and deny individuals their most basic legal protections. These deportations were not
37:06based on convictions or due process. They were based on ancestry and suspicion. Tattoos, misidentified,
37:13affiliations assumed, rights ignored. And the Supreme Court affirmed by a 7-2 majority,
37:18these people deserve due process under our Constitution. For me and for Representative Takano,
37:25this strikes painfully close to home. During World War II, the same law was used to imprison over 120,000
37:33Japanese Americans, including our families. My great-grandfather was taken from his home,
37:39incarcerated without cause solely because of his ethnicity. Now we are seeing the same injustice
37:45unfold again. In communities like Kona, Hawaii, where a child was taken from his elementary school
37:52classroom, families taken from their homes, people live in fear. Children miss school. Parents avoid
37:59life-saving care and their doctors. Faith communities grow quiet, not because of guilt, but because of
38:06government overreach. Let us be clear. These individuals are our neighbors, workers, students,
38:15and friends. They deserve dignity and due process, not detention and deportation. Sending people to
38:22foreign prisons without a trial, without rights, and without hope is not only unconstitutional. It is
38:28plain un-American, and it must stop. I urge my colleagues to honor the oath we all took in this very
38:36chamber to uphold the Constitution, protect due process, and defend the values that define our
38:44nation. Thank you, Representative Takano, and I yield back. Thank you, Representative Takuta. I would now
38:51like to yield to my colleague, my fellow colleague from Southern California, a good friend, Representative
38:59Judy Chu. This administration has thrown out the Constitution and asserted that the president has
39:08king-like power to arrest anybody in this country and deport them, even to a foreign prison for life with
39:16no due process. Days ago, we learned they deported a four-year-old child with stage four cancer and a two-year-old
39:26American citizen. And we know that they are now going after Southeast Asian refugees from Vietnam, Laos,
39:35and Cambodia, who came here due to the U.S. depending on them as allies during the Vietnam War. This was
39:44a case with Chan Thanh Bun, who flood to the U.S. with his family to escape the Cambodian genocide. Like many
39:53refugees, Bunn found himself in an impoverished community and struggled to acclimate. He later fell in with the
40:00wrong crowd and made a mistake as a teenager. But Bun has since served his time and once granted parole, he's become a
40:08leader in his community. But in Trump's eyes, Bun's rehabilitation doesn't matter. Trump is now detaining and
40:17deporting Southeast Asian refugees who've had pauses on their deportation orders for decades and are
40:23deeply tied to their communities. 15,000 of these refugees have deportation orders and now are being
40:33deported as they do the right thing and report for their ICE check-in. While we will not stand for it, I will
40:41soon be reintroducing the Southeast Asian Deportation Relief Act, which would prevent the administration
40:49from deporting these refugees to countries where they've often never lived and ensure that those who
40:56already have been deported can return home to the U.S. If the Trump administration can disappear
41:04immigrants to other countries without due process or deport refugees to places where they have no
41:10memories of, we are all in danger. I yield back. Thank you Representative Chu for bringing to light
41:19the story of an individual who has contributed much to his community and I'm very disappointed and
41:29alarmed and frankly terrified by the actions of this administration. I would now like to yield time to
41:38also a fellow Californian, a long-time friend of mine, somebody who I admire for his courage and
41:45initiative for leading a recent delegation of four members of Congress to the country of El Salvador
41:53and so I will, without any further ado, yield to my good friend Representative Robert Garcia.
41:58Well thank you so much and I really appreciate this opportunity to speak about a topic really important
42:05right now in our country. And Mr. Speaker, there's no issue right now that should concern Americans more
42:12than the elimination and destruction of due process. Not just now for U.S. citizens but for people that
42:19are here whether it's a legal status or because they've been invited to this country to apply for asylum.
42:25Now we've heard tonight and I want to go ahead and speak a little bit more about Andre Romero.
42:31This young gentleman right here, he is a gay hair stylist, makeup artist,
42:37who came to the United States with an asylum appointment. The United States government gave Andre
42:46an appointment to show up to the border so that he could claim asylum using our process that we created.
42:55He shows up with his appointment and what happens? He gets interrogated through the process,
43:04his initial screening is positive and then he essentially gets taken at the border from that
43:12screening directly to an El Salvador prison in a country he knows nothing about and in a process that
43:22eliminated his right through the court and due process asylum system that we've created in this country.
43:30What kind of America is this or we're doing this to people that are seeking asylum? We're sending them
43:37to a foreign prison. And I want to note Andre's family describes him as someone that is sweet, that's kind,
43:46that's gentle. And yet we're sending him to a notorious prison in a very vulnerable position.
43:56I also want to note that folks, an agent said, oh, well, he has some tattoos. Yes, he has a crown tattoo
44:05reflective of a festival back in his home city and state in Venezuela. It has nothing to do with
44:12gangs. He's never been convicted of anything to do with gangs. But because an ICE agent, who was, by the
44:19way, a disgraced former police officer, made these claims, Andre is now in a foreign prison and his
44:29family and his lawyers have not heard anything about him in weeks. Now, I did go to El Salvador to
44:36advocate for the release of not just Kilmar, who had been mandated by the Supreme Court to come back,
44:42but also for Andre. Andre, we told his story to the ambassador in El Salvador. It's the first time
44:50he had heard his story. And he, after the meeting, made a request to the government in El Salvador to
44:57do a welfare check for the first time on Andre. We have yet to hear anything about how he is doing,
45:05his condition, if he's alive or where he's at. This is a disgrace by President Trump, Secretary
45:13Rubio, Secretary Noem, and everyone involved in this process. We demand to know if he is healthy,
45:21if he's okay, where he is, and that he be given the right to come back to the United States so that he
45:27can go through the process that we asked him to go through before we kidnapped him and sent him to
45:33a prison in El Salvador. We must do better in this country. And with that, I yield back.
45:40If you would just, if Representative would just stay with me for a moment,
45:44Representative Garcia, I had not heard the story about your request to the ambassador to do welfare
45:51check. If anybody, this is one picture of Andre Hernandez. I've seen other pictures of him,
45:59other photographs. It is hard for, I think, anyone who looks at these photographs to believe
46:04that Andre is a dangerous member of the Tren de Agua criminal gang. Here's the other fact you just
46:17mentioned. He has never once been at large in the U.S. territory, any part of the U.S. government or
46:26the continental United States. From the very beginning, when he crossed the border, he was in
46:31custody. He's never been out of custody. So he's never once posed any danger. He arrives with papers
46:38that show from his native Venezuela that he has no criminal record. And my understanding,
46:45not only was he fleeing, seeking asylum from Venezuela because of his sexual orientation,
46:53but also because he would not comply with the authoritarian regime there. Is that your understanding
47:01as well? Absolutely. And I think that it's a shame that someone fleeing persecution for who they are
47:08and then given an appointment by us, the United States, is then sent to a foreign prison.
47:13Well, thank you so much for, you know, on your own resources and for our colleagues who spent their
47:20own resources, because this House of Representatives will not do oversight over the overreach of this
47:27administration. An administration who is defying a 9-0 Supreme Court order to facilitate the return of
47:43Kilmar Obrego Garcia. But there's another compelling case we have before us. And the 280 other
47:51individuals that are in Sukkot prison, the government has kept those names secret. We've had to do,
48:00the press and others have had to do a lot of sleuthing to identify individuals who have been sent down
48:05there. For all we know, there could be citizens among those folks. We don't know because they have never
48:11been able to talk to a judge. That's right. They've never been able to defend themselves against charges that
48:17they are Trandaagua criminals or otherwise dangerous criminals. This is a travesty. I think all Americans
48:26should be outraged. All Americans should be afraid for themselves because we have now seen in just recent
48:32days, we have moved from non-citizens to citizens being sent out of this country. Citizens. Thank you.
48:43Thank you, Representative. I just want to say over the last hour, the American public has heard directly
48:51as members of Congress came to this hallowed floor to talk plainly about the grave constitutional crisis
48:57unfolding in our country. We have heard the names Kilmar Obrego Garcia, Andri Hernandez Romero. We have
49:06spoken of students taken off streets, court orders cast aside, and a supermax prison that now
49:13holds victims of abuse. These are not isolated incidents. They are evidence of a pattern. A government
49:21operating outside the law, outside the Constitution, outside the decision of a Supreme Court that has
49:30ruled 9-0 that this administration must facilitate the return of Kilmar Obrego Garcia. A government that
49:40believes that it can disappear people without charges, ignore the judiciary, and turn the Constitution
49:47into a suggestion rather than a safeguard. Mr. Speaker, this body must exert its collective conscience.
49:57This is not who we are, and it must not be who we become. The American people are beginning to wake up.
50:05They are hungry for accountability from our government and courage from Congress. And I promise this,
50:12this is not the end of our voices. It is only the beginning. And with that, I yield back the balance of
50:21my time, Mr. Speaker.
50:24Chairman Yields as members are reminded to refrain from engaging in