House Democrats spotlight Trump immigration enforcement harms
House Democrats held a forum Wednesday to call attention to harms from President Donald Trump’s tough-on-immigration enforcement push, highlighting stories of individuals who interacted with immigration agents.
Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee, said the event was necessary to push back on Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions and the Trump administration’s policies.
“Democrats are doing what Republicans won’t, sounding the alarm on what Border Patrol and ICE are doing to American citizens and communities across the country under the Trump administration,” Thompson said.
Witnesses included Rev. David Black, a Chicago-based pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, who told of his story of immigration agents firing upon him with pepper balls while he was protesting at the Broadview ICE Detention Center.
“We know very little about what happens to people after they are detained by ICE, though many are sent to outsourced internment camps, which have been described by independent observers as death camps,” Black said.
James Brown, a military veteran, told the story about his wife Donna Hughes Brown, an Irish national whom he said was a legal permanent U.S. resident with a green card. He said she is currently in immigration detention based on misdemeanor bad check charges from more than a decade ago that were valued at $60.
Brown questioned why the Trump administration would seek to detain his wife for the misdemeanor and seek to deport her while Trump issues pardons in million-dollar fraud cases.
“You know, my wife’s got a $60 deal, and they pardon people for millions of dollars,” Brown said. “Just insane.”
House Democrats held a forum Wednesday to call attention to harms from President Donald Trump’s tough-on-immigration enforcement push, highlighting stories of individuals who interacted with immigration agents.
Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee, said the event was necessary to push back on Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions and the Trump administration’s policies.
“Democrats are doing what Republicans won’t, sounding the alarm on what Border Patrol and ICE are doing to American citizens and communities across the country under the Trump administration,” Thompson said.
Witnesses included Rev. David Black, a Chicago-based pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, who told of his story of immigration agents firing upon him with pepper balls while he was protesting at the Broadview ICE Detention Center.
“We know very little about what happens to people after they are detained by ICE, though many are sent to outsourced internment camps, which have been described by independent observers as death camps,” Black said.
James Brown, a military veteran, told the story about his wife Donna Hughes Brown, an Irish national whom he said was a legal permanent U.S. resident with a green card. He said she is currently in immigration detention based on misdemeanor bad check charges from more than a decade ago that were valued at $60.
Brown questioned why the Trump administration would seek to detain his wife for the misdemeanor and seek to deport her while Trump issues pardons in million-dollar fraud cases.
“You know, my wife’s got a $60 deal, and they pardon people for millions of dollars,” Brown said. “Just insane.”
The forum took place as a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee concurrently held a separate hearing titled, “ICE Under Fire: The Radical Left’s Crusade Against Immigration Enforcement,” which a different perspective on immigration enforcement and hostility toward officials as the problem.
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, said in an opening statement that people on the left continue to vilify immigration enforcement officials who are simply carrying out their duties under the law, and assaults and attacks on immigration officers have skyrocketed.
He said people have rammed officers with vehicles, thrown rocks, bottles and smoke grenades, laid down in roads to prevent officers from leaving and slashed tires on government vehicles, among other actions.
“Protesters have made violent threats against ICE officers, comparing them to fascists and Nazis, inciting more violence against immigration officers who are again are simply doing the job Congress asked them to do, they are enforcing federal laws,” Cornyn said.
Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., said in an opening statement that American citizens were caught up in these raids, such as a pregnant woman in Florida, a U.S. citizen, who was thrown to the ground in an arrest and later miscarried.
“What we are seeing every day is new acts of brutality and misuse of force in communities across the country,” Padilla said.