Rep. Andrea Salinas Delivers Remarks about Trump's Attacks on Children through ICE Operations
Click here to watch Rep. Salinas’ full remarks.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today,Congresswoman Andrea Salinas (OR-06) joined the Democratic Judiciary Committee to deliver remarks and question witnesses about President Trump and his Administration's cruel treatment of children in their ICE operations. Salinas highlighted that ICE has racially profiled families and children in Oregon’s Sixth District, where they have physically and emotionally mistreated them, leaving them with trauma that can never be undone.
A transcript of Salinas’ remarks is available below:
Good morning, everyone.
Thank you to Ranking Member Jayapal for organizing this shadow hearing and thank you to everyone here for joining us to stand up for the children who are victims of Trump’s immigration overreach.
Over the past year we’ve watched as this Trump Administration has terrorized our communities, and mine in the Willamette Valley, including Washington County — it’s one of the hardest-hit areas in our state — violated our Constitution, spread fear, and is sowing constant stress for our children.
On the campaign trail, Trump told Americans that he was going to go after the worst of the worst. He lied. He is not targeting criminals and gang members. He is targeting innocent families, including children in my district and in Oregon.
In July, ICE agents stopped Mahdi, who was driving to drop off his child at daycare in Beaverton, very close to Hillsboro. ICE agents pulled him over and asked for his identification. His child recognized what was happening and yelled, “Daddy, police!” This is a daycare-aged child. Mahdi pleaded with the ICE agents, saying, “There’s a baby in the car.” He asked to at least drop off his child first. The officers followed Mahdi to the daycare. They let him drop off his child. But immediately afterward, in the daycare parking lot, ICE agents unnecessarily broke Mahdi’s window and detained him for all the schoolchildren and the parents to witness.
And then this past November, in my district, so similar to your story Manny, ICE agents detained Christian Jimenez in McMinnville. Christian is a seventeen-year-old high school student. He was on his lunch break. ICE agents approached him. Christian told the agents, “I’m a U.S. citizen.” They said, “I don’t care.” This is the theme of this Administration. They don’t care. The agents shattered Christian’s window and got glass in Christian’s eye. They detained him, took him to an ICE facility, and kept him there for hours before he was released. And to this day, Christian will not speak to anybody. I have let him know that my office is open, I’m open to him. He will not talk to anyone. He is traumatized, and he is fearful for his family. The priority here is not to keep U.S. citizens safe. It’s to attack and traumatize our communities.
We are a nation that believes in due process. We protect children, not traumatize them. And we don’t turn our backs on families because of where they come from, what they look like, or how they speak.
This Administration has forgotten that, and it is our responsibility to remind them. That is what we’re doing today: to hold them accountable. We measure ourselves not by how we treat the powerful, but how we treat the most vulnerable. And right now, Trump is failing.
Thank you.
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