Maxine Dexter Rails Against Trump Admin Holding Migrants At Gitmo And 'Refusing' To Give Due Process

3 hours ago

During a House Natural Resources Committee hearing prior to the congressional recess, Rep. Maxine Dexter (D-OR) spoke about the detainment of migrants at Guantanamo Bay.

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Transcript

00:00Next, I turn to Ms. Dexter for her questioning for five minutes.

00:04Great.

00:05Thank you, Mr. Chair.

00:06And thank you all for coming today.

00:09As a physician and mother, I think every day about the world we are leaving behind for

00:13our children, and I sit here on this committee because I care deeply about public lands.

00:18We should be working together, as many of us have talked about today, to protect our

00:22public lands.

00:23I would argue it is not the place to be pushing a cruel and unnecessary immigration agenda

00:29that is minimally relevant to the work of this committee.

00:32Instead of addressing environmental challenges or actually staffing our parks and forests

00:36to keep them safe and clean, this administration is misusing funds and resources to fuel anti-immigration

00:42policies.

00:43Just look at Guantanamo Bay, where over 1,000 security forces and civilians are assigned

00:48to ongoing operations.

00:50This is a clear pattern.

00:52My Republican colleagues are diverting resources away from urgent priorities like delivering

00:56the services and benefits our veterans bled for, while putting them toward an agenda

01:01that puts our most vulnerable at risk and ignores civil rights and gives billionaires

01:06tax cuts.

01:07That's why I'm looking for answers.

01:09I'm demanding to know why Donald Trump is detaining immigrants with no criminal record

01:14in a maximum security prison.

01:16I'm demanding to know why Trump is refusing to give those detained due process.

01:20And I'm demanding to know why, in a committee that is tasked with protecting our public

01:25lands, this is the focus of today's hearing.

01:29To add insult to injury, we are holding this hearing while the Trump-Musk administration

01:33continues to fire thousands of workers at the Department of Interior, Forest Service,

01:38and National Parks.

01:40And will we hear from those agencies about what that is doing to their ability to carry

01:45out their missions?

01:46No, because my Republican colleagues have declined to invite them.

01:51It is my understanding that, last Congress, the U.S. Forest Service testified before

01:55this committee that implementing the legislation before us today would require an upfront investment

02:00of $40 to $60 million, plus annual maintenance costs of up to $280,000.

02:07Mr. Krumenacker, with 1,000 job cuts at the National Parks Service and 3,400 at the U.S.

02:13Forest Service, do these agencies have the capacity to implement a project of this scale?

02:21I'm sorry, let's just turn on your, thank you.

02:24We do not have capacity.

02:26We are down staffing even before the Trump administration began.

02:30Okay.

02:31And this bill before us today would also allow border states to place temporary movable structures,

02:36such as shipping containers, along the southern border, without requiring a special use permit.

02:43We've already seen the devastating consequences of this approach.

02:46Between 2017 and 2021, Arizona stacked 922 shipping containers along three and a half

02:52miles of the U.S.-Mexico border in the Coronado National Forest, deep in the Hua, I'm going

02:58to say it right, wrong, Huachuca Mountains.

03:02A GAO report later found that this project caused irreparable harm, damaged cultural

03:08sites, contaminated water sources, and endangered wildlife.

03:13Mr. Krumenacker, if this bill were to become law, how would the fragile habitats and ecosystems

03:18protected by our public lands be impacted?

03:22I'll speak primarily to what I know of Big Bend National Park.

03:27The bigger concern that I have, frankly, in addition to the environmental issues that

03:30you just mentioned, is the fact that Big Bend National Park and many other old-line national

03:35parks have exclusive federal jurisdiction.

03:38Right now, neither the state of Texas nor local law enforcement, both of whom we cooperate

03:43with very well, have the authority to actually enforce laws within the national park.

03:50I think this law would create huge ambiguity in terms of who's got the authority and the

03:55responsibility for that.

03:57In addition, placing barriers without any input from the National Park Service, there's

04:01no expertise in environmental issues, in wildlife, in watersheds, or in public use.

04:11And so, Big Bend National Park, the border is part of the visitor experience.

04:15It's also a major factor for wildlife crossings.

04:19And so, indiscriminate placement of infrastructure that may or may not be helpful to the border

04:25issue and, like Sheriff Cleveland said, we don't have that many immigrants that go across

04:31through there because of the terrain in Mexico, which is, frankly, unyielding.

04:36I think it would be mostly a show as opposed to something that would be effective and it

04:41would do all sorts of harm to the national park and to the American people's experience

04:45in that national park.

04:46Excellent.

04:47And I appreciate my colleague, Mr. Westerman's, points and concerns about the protection of

04:51sensitive lands.

04:53Is it your opinion that cutting staff will help improve federal land protection and cleaning

04:57up of garbage and other things along our borders?

05:01Trash is not merely an immigrant problem.

05:05It's a problem whenever there are people on the border.

05:07So Big Bend National Park and other public lands have trash challenges and we don't have

05:12enough people.

05:13And so, I know at least within the area that I was responsible for, we didn't see large

05:18piles of immigrant trash.

05:21We had trouble collecting the trash that the visiting public generated and Big Bend National

05:25Park had a landfill inside the national park, one of only two that does.

05:29So lowering the amount of trash is an excellent idea.

05:32I don't see how creating more penalties on those who already are violating the law by

05:39dropping trash in national parks, whether they're American citizens, visitors, or they're

05:44immigrants, I don't see how that will make a difference.

05:46Having enough people to actually collect the trash and to enforce the existing laws, that

05:50would make a huge difference.

05:53I yield back, Mr. Chair.

Maxine Dexter Rails Against Trump Admin Holding Migrants At Gitmo And 'Refusing' To Give Due Process

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