Sam T. Liccardo

Mr. Speaker, I thank Representative Torres for her leadership.

Mr. Speaker, a graveyard of living people, is how Lorenzo described Camp East Montana, the ICE detention facility where guards denied him sunlight and fresh air for a full month.

Lorenzo persevered. Mr. Speaker, 52 others would never feel the sun upon their face again. Fifty-two people have died in ICE custody since Donald Trump took office. They were mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, daughters and sons, every one someone's child. Every one a child of God. Someone loves us. Someone mourns us. When we die, grief takes part of them with us.

My heart aches for the families who never got the chance to say good- bye, who never held their loved one's hand before they died alone behind barbed wire and concrete.

I have undocumented neighbors in San Jose who have lived there for more than two decades. They have built lives there. They have built families there. Some coach for youth sports teams and others volunteer at their church. Several have built businesses, employing U.S. citizens. All have built our community.

This is not the first time our country has put the most ambitious of our Dreamers and doers behind bars. In 1942, my father came home telling my grandfather that his friend was missing from their weekly pick-up baseball game. It turned out his friend, Norm, had been taken with his family from their home on 5th Street in San Jose and incarcerated in Heart Mountain, Wyoming. Norm was Japanese American. That young boy returned to San Jose and grew up.

Decades later, I had the honor of working for him as his intern. His name is Norm Mineta, and he served in this Congress for two decades.

The incarceration of 120,000 Japanese Americans left an indelible stain on our country. The last of those who endured it still walk among us, and the ghosts of those who did not endure it still haunt our national conscience.

History will harshly judge us also for the abusive and inhuman treatment of our undocumented neighbors. Too many of us have declined to speak out, or perhaps only when ICE's chaotic cruelty takes the life of an American citizen as in Minneapolis. Yet the deaths in our DHS detention centers continue unabated, accompanied only by the incriminating silence of the quietly complicit.

I am proud that in my own Bay Area region: San Mateo County, the city of San Jose, Santa Clara County, and Napa County have all taken steps to obstruct the construction of new detention centers in our communities. We are helping them and others with a toolkit that includes a model ordinance, but local leaders should never have to fight this battle alone.

Congress must act. We must defend human dignity. We must uphold our Constitution, and we must stop digging graveyards for the living.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to honor the Almanac newspaper on the occasion of its 60th anniversary. It's important to honor those local news sources that have survived the industry's many financial challenges to provide an essential public service to our democracy, particularly in this moment when our First Amendment has come under repeated and serious threat.

The Almanac has provided critical community-focused journalism for Menlo Park, Atherton, Woodside and Portola Valley for six decades. Throughout its history, it has brought news and information to local residents without fear or favor. Its journalists have always believed strong journalism builds better communities.

In 1965, three Portola Valley mothers, troubled by the lack of coverage of local issues, and the defeat of a Portola Valley school bond measure, met for lunch among the eucalyptus trees on the Stanford Campus to develop a solution. Soon after, Hedy Boissevain, Betty Fry, and Jean Heflin, got to work at their kitchen tables and family garages and published the first four-page edition of what was then called ``The Country Almanac.''

The paper then found its first real home at the corner of Woodside and Canada roads in Woodside, and the founders' children and friends delivered the papers--a year's subscription cost two dollars.

From its modest stall, the paper continued to grow and by 1975, the newspaper could afford its first full-time reporter, Pam Jones, who was often the first to tell residents what was going on in their towns. In the 1980s, local newspaperman Mort Levine and his wife, Elaine, acquired the Almanac and the coverage area expanded to include Menlo Park, Portola Valley, Woodside, and Atherton,

In 1993, Embarcadero Publishing Co., founded by Bill Johnson, bought The Almanac and added it to its family of newspapers. Today that family includes newspapers and websites serving Midpeninsula communities including Mountain View, Palo Alto, and Redwood City.

Today, as local newsrooms across the country are shrinking or shutting their doors entirely, the Almanac continues to endure and adapt to meet the needs of its communities. Its three dedicated staffers, Editor Andrea Gemmet and staff writers Jennifer Yoshikoshi and Arden Margulis, provide local and accountable journalism that residents trust.

In 2026, the California News Publishers Association honored the Almanac with 22 California Journalism Awards, including six first-place honors for Breaking News, Photo Essay, Layout and Design, Housing and Land-Use Coverage, and Coverage of Youth and Education--a testament to a small newsroom doing outsized work.

I ask my colleagues to join me in congratulating the founders, staff, and readers of The Almanac on six decades of delivering the news, and in wishing them continued strength as they carry local journalism forward for the Midpeninsula in the decades to come.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life and legacy of Ms. Fatima Soares, who passed away on June 14, 2026. For more than four decades, Soares dedicated her career to Coastside Hope, where she served with kindness, generosity, humility, and an unwavering commitment to the community. She rooted her leadership in compassion, service, and a deep belief in the dignity of every person.

Born on April 2, 1954, in the Azores, Soares immigrated from Portugal to the United States in 1969. Her family first settled on her aunt's farm in Brentwood, California, before moving to Half Moon Bay. Soares graduated from Half Moon Bay High School and later attended San Francisco State University, where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in Social Work.

Soares began her career at the Coastside Opportunity Center as a secretary and then as a social worker. She eventually became the organization's executive director, playing an integral role in its transition from the Coastside Opportunity Center to Coastside Hope. During some of the organization's most difficult financial times, Soares made courageous and thoughtful decisions, carrying the organization through hardship without sacrificing its mission to ``enhance the quality of life for all of our neighbors.'' Even after long workdays, Soares volunteered at the local RotaCare Clinic, helping ensure that community members without insurance could access the health care they needed.

Those who knew Soares remember her as soft-spoken, thoughtful, and deeply attentive. She was a leader who listened with patience, and responded with wisdom, not judgment. She gave with a heart that asked for nothing in return. Because of her, Coastside Hope is stronger and the community is kinder.

While Soares' professional accomplishments were remarkable, she also found joy in reading, traveling, and spending time with her family. Whether sharing coffee with her sisters or cheering with her great- nieces and great-nephews at sporting events, Soares treasured the simple moments spent with the people she loved most.

Soares is survived by her sisters, Rosa Avila and Orlanda Soares; her nephew, James Avila; her nieces, Cassie Avila-Rotondo and Jessica Avila; her great-nieces, Abigail and Sadie Sullivan; and her great- nephew, Walker Sullivan. She was preceded in death by her parents, Antonio and Leontina Soares, and her brother, Tony Soares.

I ask my colleagues to join me in remembering Fatima Soares, whose life's work remains woven into the heart of the Coastside community. May her generosity, kindness, and courage remind us that leadership can be both strong and tender.