At a town hall in El Paso, Texas, on Saturday, Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-TX) discussed the recent uptick in Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids and arrests.
00:00Good morning. Good morning. Thank you for being here and helping our community. So I think my main concern here I believe for our community is what are we doing to stop ICE from taking our people from the courts? I've seen it. I've seen it.
00:23And I think we have to have now because I know personally people that are in the detention centers here in El Paso that have no criminal history. They came and did it correctly. They are educated people from other countries. And I believe we all have to unite. I believe we have to do something. I don't know. In the courthouse, I don't know what can be done to stop ICE from taking them.
00:53And I think there has to be a solution. Because I do see people still being taken. And they're losing everything. Everything. And they're having a hard time getting out.
01:04So what can we do for Congressman or anybody that can help in this situation here in El Paso? Because they are suffering. And the families here in El Paso, too, are feeling it. They're scared. They don't want to go out or they don't want to go work.
01:20And I think that's the main priority right now that we have to focus on. And even my students, my students, too, and they're U.S. citizens, they're being stopped at the border and being asked. So I have all that going on plus this additional.
01:36So I don't know if they're not respecting the law of ICE. I don't know what can be done. I don't know. Toad truck their cars. I don't know. You know.
01:46Thank you for teaching our kids and for why this is happening. Because it's really important for the American public to understand why this is happening.
02:00And there are immigrants with legal protections. Legal protections. Immigrants who have followed all the rules. Immigrants who are reporting for their, voluntarily reporting for their court cases, who are being detained, arrested, and deported, even though they, quote, unquote, are doing it the right way.
02:25Let me tell you why this is happening. Stephen Miller, who is the worst for Donald Trump. He told ICE, I guess he's Cristino's boss. He told Cristino and he told ICE that they needed to apprehend, detain and apprehend, 3,000 people per day.
02:50So he created this unbelievable quota for ICE agents to me. And let me tell you, when ICE is doing a criminal enforcement operation, it takes time. It takes investigative time.
03:09You know, it takes time to truly arrest a criminal. And when Donald Trump ran for office, he said he was going to go after the, quote, worst of the worst.
03:20And he was going to focus on criminals. You know, most people will not advocate for criminals. I will not. But this is not what he's doing. Because of these quotas, people with legal protections, people with, I have heard of people with legal permanent residency, being detained and apprehended.
03:42And it's all to meet the quota. And I am so, there's a group of El Pasoans who go and bear witness at the courthouse and film the interactions. I'm so grateful to them for bearing witness and for sharing with the country what is happening in our own community, which is shameful.
04:04We should want people to report to court because we should, we should want people to follow the rules.
04:11And, and what I have heard for years is we want people to do it the right way. This is the right way.
04:18So I, I have tried to stop this legislatively. I have even tried to stop it through the appropriations process. Like no money shall go to fund the Department of Homeland Security if they are doing X.
04:32Um, I had one amendment passed out of the committee that D that DHS that no funds shall go to DHS for apprehending, um, or detaining a US citizen. That was the only one I could get passed.
04:48Although honestly, that was a victory because they are, they are pursuing people who look undocumented. Um, so it, it truly is racial profiling that we're seeing across the country.
05:01And it is largely racial profiling of people with brown skin or black skin. So I am trying to look for every legislative avenue possible appropriations avenues to stop this.
05:16Uh, my casework team went into the detention center, um, basically to do a ton of casework. We talked about doing that as often as we can.
05:26Um, I am performing as much oversight as I possibly can. I went into the massive, uh, Camp East Montana last week.
05:35Uh, I'm trying to go again this week so that I can talk to folks in detention to get more of these stories out and public.
05:42Um, we are working to try to get lawyers into the facility because right now they're only able to talk to them by phone, but we had a commitment from ice that they would have a place for, um, legal representation.
05:59We, we, we need to search this community with lawyers, frankly. Um, I have advocated with the ACLU that they at least give us one lawyer, um, because we don't have a single ACLU lawyer in El Paso.
06:12So, so I am trying on multiple fronts, um, and I'm not going to stop. If we, as I, as I said to my Republican colleagues, when, um, I tried to amend the DHS appropriations bill, this kind of behavior by ICE will make it so that people will not want to show up to court.
06:33That, that court will be seen as a threat to them. So do we want people to do things the right way or not? Um, and I would hope that they would. So please know, I, this is a priority for me.
06:47I have been pushing on it through various different levels and, and we'll continue to do it through oversight, legislation, appropriations, advocating for more lawyers, and, um, um, sending my caseworkers inside. Thank you.
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