People Are Dying In Ice Detention
Mr. Speaker, Edwin Lopez-Cornejo told his mother that he could no longer feel his face. He was losing feeling in his arm, and he was scared. He was inside an ICE detention facility despite having a valid work permit. Edwin suffered from…
Mr. Speaker, Edwin Lopez-Cornejo told his mother that he could no longer feel his face. He was losing feeling in his arm, and he was scared. He was inside an ICE detention facility despite having a valid work permit.
Edwin suffered from serious medical conditions, but ICE denied him care and the medications he needed. Edwin
died on August 1 after just 6 weeks in ICE custody. He was only 41 years old. He was a father.
Edwin's story should stop us in our tracks because he is not alone. People are dying in ICE detention. People have been killed during immigration enforcement operations. The people the Trump administration is going after are not serious criminals or the worst of the worst.
In July, more than one-half of the people arrested by ICE had no criminal convictions and no pending criminal charges. These are workers, parents, and caregivers. They are people who have lived in our communities for years, yet the administration is stripping away legal protections to detain and deport them.
Look at Haitian families with temporary protected status. For years our government told them: You can come live here, and you can come and work here.
They built their lives here. They pay taxes. They cared for our parents and our grandparents. In Florida alone, an estimated 93,000 Haitian workers with TPS spent years caring for Holocaust survivors. Some had worked there for over two decades, and then this administration got rid of their protections. Scores of people lost their jobs.
Those caregivers were not here illegally. The government changed their status so they could send them back to a country where their lives are in danger.
Then, let's look at what happened to Lorenzo Salgado Araujo. Lorenzo was a 52-year-old father of three with no criminal record, and he had applied for a legal work permit. Lorenzo had lived in this country for nearly 35 years and built his own construction business. Yet, in July, ICE agents killed him while looking for another person.
One of Lorenzo's sons, Ronaldo, watched the video of his father and said: ``My father was always a strong man and never wanted us to know if he was in pain. He never complained . . . but it hurt my heart to hear his scream.''
Two fathers: One killed by ICE in the street; one dead after 6 weeks in ICE custody.
This abuse does not stop with immigrants. U.S. citizens are being rounded up and deported.
When the Supreme Court allowed ICE to profile people racially during enforcement stops based on their race and their language, Supreme Court Justice Kavanaugh wrote that if you are a U.S. citizen, you are going to be free to go after just a brief encounter.
That is not what happened to Brian Jose Morales Garcia. He is a U.S. citizen who was deported to Mexico after a traffic stop in Texas, even though he repeatedly told the ICE officer he was a U.S. citizen and asked to get the proof of citizenship at his home. They ignored him. They deported him.
For 4 months, Brian was stuck in Mexico. Imagine this: an American citizen stuck in Mexico for 4 months, separated from your work and family before you are finally allowed to come back to this country and having to hire a lawyer.
Since Trump returned to office, more than 50 people have died in ICE custody. Others, including U.S. citizens, have died during immigration enforcement operations.
Congress must stop this out-of-control agency and hold them accountable for every death at the hands of ICE. People are dying. Americans are less safe because of this rogue agency that is out in the streets with masks and no identification.
Mr. Speaker, this administration and Republicans in Congress continue to kill innocent people and make us less safe. This must stop.