At a House Homeland Security Committee hearing prior to the Congressional recess, Democratic lawmakers offered amendments to the GOP budget reconciliation to rein in President Trump's actions on deportations.
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00:01Without objection, the reading is dispensed with, and the gentleman, Mr. Carter, is recognized
00:05for five minutes to speak on his amendment.
00:07Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
00:09Last week, three little children who are citizens of the United States of America and citizens
00:17of the state of Louisiana were unconstitutionally detained by ICE, then unconstitutionally trafficked
00:26out of this country to Honduras.
00:28One of those little children is a four-year-old boy with a rare form of cancer at stage four,
00:36and that little boy is going to die if he doesn't get back to the United States where he belongs.
00:43I'm shocked, and it takes a lot to shock me these days, that I even have to propose this
00:49amendment to prohibit funds from being used to deport minor children who are citizens of
00:56this country.
00:58But unfortunately, we're here.
01:00Look, it's already illegal to deport citizens.
01:06As federal courts have said, quote, any ICE officer would know it is illegal and unconstitutional
01:15to deport, detained for deportation or recommended deportation a U.S. citizen.
01:23Moreover, to quote federal courts, an ICE officer who actively participates in the detention and
01:32or removal of a person who he knows to be a U.S. citizen or upon minimal investigation would
01:39discover is a U.S. citizen would be deemed to know that such conduct clearly denies that
01:46person's liberty without due process, end quote.
01:52So the ICE field office director in New Orleans and every ICE officer who aided or effectuated
01:59the removal of these little citizen children from the state of Louisiana to Honduras were
02:06trampling on the Constitution.
02:10They said to hell with it.
02:13Can't say that about our Constitution.
02:17Congress cannot allow taxpayer dollars to be spent for unconstitutional actions that harm
02:24little children who happen to be U.S. citizens.
02:29I've seen people on the Internet and some of my Republican colleagues say that children's mothers
02:34somehow consented to the deportation of their children.
02:38Let me dispel this myth.
02:40First of all, as a Trump appointed judge in Louisiana said, quote, the court doesn't know
02:46that, end quote, because the Trump administration refused to pick up the phone when the judge
02:51called to speak to one of the mothers about her so-called consent.
02:58Second, a mother cannot give meaningful consent to the deportation of her citizen children while
03:04she is under duress and held by ICE with no access to her lawyer, while her lawyer is pleading
03:12with ICE to get into the room, and while she cannot get into contact with the children's
03:19father.
03:20Third, what is a mother to do if she doesn't know whether ICE will let her kids go on the
03:27side of the road or just house them in a different cell to suffer alone?
03:33There's no lawful consent that could be given under those circumstances.
03:38Third, and finally, the father of these children did not consent to their children's unconstitutional
03:46deportation to Honduras.
03:49To quote the Supreme Court in Troxell v. Granville, quote, the liberty interest of parents in the
03:58care, custody, and control of their children is perhaps the oldest of the fundamental liberties,
04:04interest recognized by this court, end quote.
04:08Yet again, ICE and DHS ignored the Constitution and deported children's citizens.
04:16What is fascist, fascist hell has this country become in just the first three months of the
04:25Donald Trump presidency?
04:27Let me repeat that, what in fascist hell has this country become in just the first three
04:33months of Donald Trump's presidency?
04:35We cannot sit back and let ICE deport citizens, especially children.
04:41My tiny constituents may die in a foreign country because of the ICE field office in New Orleans
04:48and the actions of the Trump administration, which Republicans apparently want to spend more
04:53money on.
04:55Where is the human decency?
04:59Let's get these citizen children back.
05:01Congress has planes.
05:03We should go get them.
05:05Bring them home from Honduras.
05:07Get these children back home to their fathers.
05:09The gentleman's time has expired and get them into the hands of hospitals.
05:13The gentleman's time has expired.
05:15Mr. Chairman, I yield.
05:18I would draw my point of order.
05:20Point of order is withdrawn.
05:21Do any other members wish to speak on this amendment?
05:25Mr. Chairman.
05:26Mr. Magaziner is recognized for five minutes.
05:30Mr. Chairman, I speak in support of Mr. Carter's bill.
05:33It is outrageous that the Trump administration is deporting children who are U.S. citizens and
05:42pose no threat to the United States.
05:45What world are we living in where my Republican colleagues are willing to accept this?
05:50And I just want to add some context here.
05:54As far as I'm aware, in none of the cases where U.S. citizen children have been deported were their parents accused of any crime in the United States, pose any threat to public safety.
06:07And it seems that they were denied the opportunity to even consult with a lawyer before they and their children were deported.
06:18April 24th, in New Orleans, U.S. citizens aged four and seven, the four-year-old has a rare form of late-stage cancer.
06:28The mother was not able to speak with family members or any lawyers before she and the children, including the U.S. citizen child with cancer, were deported.
06:38Not even allowed to talk to a lawyer.
06:41That U.S. citizen's rights were denied.
06:46Family number two, April 22nd, a two-year-old U.S. citizen deported to Honduras with his mother and sister.
06:55Now, picture that you are the father of this two-year-old.
07:00The father, and we know this from legal filings, the father received a call from an ICE officer who said that the mother was there and that they did not have much time to speak, but they were going to be deported.
07:11The father was able to speak with the mother for only a minute.
07:17He heard his daughters crying in the background.
07:19He told the officer that their daughter was a U.S. citizen and could not be deported.
07:26The officer said that the daughter would not be deported.
07:31The father began to give the mother the phone number of their attorneys, but before he could, he heard the officer take the phone from her and hang up the call, and they were all deported, including the two-year-old U.S. citizen.
07:46No opportunity to speak with a lawyer.
07:48Barely any opportunity at all to speak with family.
07:52Why?
07:54What was the urgent threat posed by this two-year-old?
07:59None.
08:00And this is the slippery slope.
08:03They start with people who are undocumented.
08:05Then it's legal immigrants in the United States.
08:07Then it's U.S. citizens who are two years old.
08:10If they keep trampling on rights, pretty soon everyone's rights are going to be under threat.
08:18This is how it happens.
08:19We have to draw the line.
08:22So if nothing else, can we at least come together as a committee and as a Congress and say no to deporting children who are U.S. citizens,
08:30especially when no access to legal counsel has been afforded?
08:35Can we at least do that?
08:37And I yield back.
08:39The gentleman yields.
08:40Do any other members wish to speak on this amendment?
08:43Mr. Chairman.
08:44Mr. Thompson is recognized.
08:46Thank you very much.
08:48It must be really tough for my colleagues on the other side to vote against this.
08:54I mean, I'm a father.
08:56I'm a grandfather.
08:57I'm a godfather.
08:58I'm an uncle.
09:00I'm a cousin to children who are all American citizens.
09:05And all we're saying is, say, look, don't do children this way.
09:12Through no fault of their own, we're going to deport them.
09:16And I would hate if somebody did a relative of Benny Thompson's like that or a relative of anyone else's like that.
09:26We are a better country than what's being exhibited in this bill.
09:32Just being mean to children is not the way to go.
09:38I encourage my colleagues to support this amendment.
09:41It makes sense.
09:42Children didn't ask to be born in this country.
09:49But if they are, they should be afforded every right that an American citizen is provided.
09:56And it can't be just based on innuendo or what somebody said.
10:02We talked about the mother said, well, we don't have proof other than what the other person said.
10:10There's no video.
10:11There's nothing.
10:12And so I think what we have to do is err on the side of what makes sense.
10:19We're a nation of laws.
10:22Children are here.
10:25It's a blessing to have them if you're fortunate.
10:28But you also have other children that you help with.
10:35And so I implore my Republican colleagues.
10:39Do a little soul searching before you vote against this bill.
10:44Because it's absolutely tough, I think, to vote against children.
10:51Most elected officials will say that children are some of the people we have to support.
10:59This is an amendment that supports children.
11:03We should not be about punishing children who have not broken the law.
11:07Being an American citizen is not illegal.
11:11Therefore, you should not be deported.
11:14So I ask my colleagues to support the amendment made by the gentleman from Louisiana.
11:21Yeel back.
11:23The gentleman yields.
11:24Any other members seek recognition?
11:27There being no further discussion, the question now occurs on the amendment offered by Mr. Carter of Louisiana.
11:34All those in favor say aye.
11:36Aye.
11:36All those opposed say no.
11:39No.
11:40In the opinion of the chair, the noes have it.
11:42And the amendment to the amendment in the nature of a substitute is not adopted.
11:46Mr. Thompson is recognized.
11:47On that, I ask for the yays and nays.
11:50Recorded vote is requested.
11:52Pursuant to Committee Rule 7C, further proceedings on this question are postponed.
11:58Are there any amendments to the amendment in the nature of a substitute to be further considered?
12:04Mr. Magaziner.
12:06Mr. Chairman.
12:09Do you have an amendment at the desk?
12:10Yes, Mr. Chairman.
12:10I have an amendment at the desk.
12:11Mr. Gess.
12:12Chairman, I seek recognition.
12:13I reserve a point of order.
12:15The gentleman reserves a point of order.
12:17The clerk will distribute the amendment.
12:43The clerk will report the amendment.
13:11An amendment to the amendment in the nature of a substitute to the committee print by
13:14the Committee on Homeland Security offered by Mr. Magaziner, number 023.
13:19Without objection, the reading is dispensed with the gentleman Mr. Magaziner is recognized
13:25for five minutes to speak on his amendment.
13:28Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
13:29My amendment is a simple one.
13:31It aims to prevent President Trump from sending United States citizens to foreign prisons
13:38like the prison in El Salvador.
13:40As United States citizens, we have inalienable rights.
13:45The right to due process, the right to free speech, and the right not to have our own elected
13:52leaders send us to foreign prisons and then claim that those rights no longer apply.
14:01If it can happen to someone else, it can happen to you.
14:05And I would just urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle, I know we don't agree
14:10on everything, but if we can agree on nothing else, can we at least agree on not sending
14:15U.S. citizens to rot in foreign prisons?
14:20And this is not an idle possibility.
14:24President Trump has repeatedly stated that he wants to send U.S. citizens to prisons in
14:29El Salvador.
14:30He said to the President of El Salvador, quote, I said, the home groans next, the home groans.
14:36Elon Musk said, great idea, and Trump said, I'd do it in a heartbeat.
14:41Donald Trump has instructed the Attorney General to look into deporting U.S. citizens to other
14:46countries.
14:47During a White House press briefing, the White House spokesperson said that the President
14:52has been discussing this idea quite a few times.
14:54Can we just cut this off now?
14:59Let's not send U.S. citizens to foreign prisons.
15:03This is insane.
15:05It is outrageous.
15:08And every American should be terrified by this prospect.
15:14What we have right now is an out-of-control President who believes that the law does not
15:19apply to him, who believes that he is above the Constitution, but no.
15:23We are a country of laws, we are a country where every U.S. citizen is protected under
15:27the Constitution, and U.S. citizens should not be sent to foreign jails.
15:33So I'm just going to stop there because this is simple, it is cut and dry, and I would just
15:37urge all my colleagues, you're going to have to vote on this.
15:41And think about how that vote is going to age over time.
15:46If U.S. citizens are sent to be tortured and possibly die in a foreign jail because we allow
15:55it to happen, how is that vote going to age?
16:00Let's just cut this off right now.
16:01It has nothing to do with making the border more secure.
16:03It has nothing to do with making our country safer.
16:06This is about protecting the fundamental rights of American citizens.
16:09It is about protecting the Constitution that we all swore an oath to uphold.
16:15Let's do the right thing here.
16:17And I yield back.
16:18Mr. Chairman.
16:19The gentleman yields.
16:20Mr. Guest is recognized.
16:21I'd like to withdraw my point of order.
16:23The gentleman withdraws his point of order.
16:25Mr. Chairman, may I be recognized?
16:29Mr. Goldman, you wish to speak on this amendment?
16:32Yes, I do.
16:33Mr. Goldman is recognized to speak on the amendment.
16:36Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
16:38We're dealing with an amendment that at its core relates to using U.S. funding, U.S. resources
16:52to pay for people who are in this country to be housed at one of the most brutal, cruel prisons
17:05in the world.
17:07This prison would violate the Eighth Amendment if it were in the United States.
17:12Of course, it's not in the United States, so there is no Eighth Amendment in El Salvador.
17:18And I bring this up because even though Mr. Abrego Garcia is not a citizen and so this amendment
17:30itself does not directly relate to him, the idea that the President of the United States
17:37would say, I have no ability to bring him back from an El Salvador prison when we are
17:48paying for him to be there.
17:52And you don't have to take my word for it.
17:54The Vice President of El Salvador said to Senator Van Hollen when he went down there, well, why
18:00are you keeping him?
18:01Because we're being paid to keep him here.
18:04And if we weren't being paid, then we would happily turn him back over.
18:10So let's call a spade a spade here.
18:13We all know that it is entirely false and bogus to claim that he cannot be returned to the United
18:23States from El Salvador.
18:26Let's just agree, can we all, that that is not actually the reason why the President of
18:34the United States has defied a 9-0 Supreme Court order.
18:40And I think we should also be able to agree that the word facilitate means, as very conservative
18:50Appellate Judge Harvey Wilkinson said, to actually do something.
18:57How about doing something by stopping payment for Mr. Abregu Garcia's incarceration?
19:07That would certainly be facilitating.
19:10That is sufficiently easy enough.
19:12And that is at the power of President Donald Trump to do.
19:19So let's get rid of this fiction that he can't be brought back.
19:22He can easily be returned by President Trump.
19:29At a Judiciary Committee hearing a couple of weeks ago,
19:34even former Speaker Newt Gringrich acknowledged that given the admitted mistake, quote unquote,
19:43of deporting Mr. Abregu Garcia to a country where there was an order that he should not go to,
19:52he said he should be brought back.
19:57Why can we not all agree that he should be returned to this country to go through due process?
20:06I don't know whether he's a member of MS-13 or not,
20:11but neither does the President, and he doesn't get to decide that.
20:14In our country, a court gets to decide that based on evidence presented to the court.
20:19So I urge, once again, my Republican colleagues to speak up, to urge the President.
20:30You could even do it privately.
20:32You don't even have to do it in public.
20:35But I urge you to call over to the White House and to encourage the President to correct his own
20:45unadmitted mistake and return someone so they can get the due process that they deserve that the Supreme Court has said unanimously.
20:58Such far-left activist judges as Justice Kavanaugh, Justice Alito, Justice Thomas, Justice Gorsuch, Justice Coney Barrett,
21:14three of whom Donald Trump nominated, they all say he needs to be brought back because of due process.
21:22And you all sit silently while he defies the Supreme Court order.
21:30Come on.
21:32You're better than this.
21:34I yield back.
21:36Gentlemen, would anyone else wish to speak on the amendment?
21:40Mr. Mayor, as you're recognized.
21:42Thank you, Chairman.
21:43I just, for the record, want to actually read the amendment that the gentleman from Rhode Island has entered for a vote.
21:52It's very simple.
21:54And let me read it into the record.
21:55None of the funds made available by this title may be used by the Department of Homeland Security, its employees, or contractors to aid, promote, or effectuate the detention or incarceration in a foreign prisoner of any citizen of the United States, except in compliance with treaty obligations and federal extradition laws and policies.
22:20I just need to make sure, as our constituents are listening, what my colleagues are about to vote on.
22:28I don't know how many of you, when you were campaigning, you said, listen, and I'm going to make sure that we're also going to be using your taxpayer dollars to deport you if you're not in agreement with the President of the United States.
22:40I don't think any of you said that.
22:41But the idea that you would actually go on record to vote to deport U.S. citizens to a prison like SICA is unconscionable to me.
22:53You have said that you have signed an oath to protect the Constitution, and you would actually go as far as saying, in a time that you're saying at town halls, well, listen, we have a deficit, we are broke,
23:06that you're going to use taxpayer dollars to deport United States citizens.
23:12It just seems unimaginable.
23:15So what I'm asking of you is to affirm the idea that your constituents are smart, and they're watching, and they read.
23:23And what this amendment says, pretty simple.
23:28It shouldn't even have to be an amendment because it's constitutional.
23:31The Department of Homeland Security cannot use taxpayer money, the money that has been appropriated for Social Security, for Medicaid, to deport United States citizens.
23:45You said that you had a problem with people coming here the illegal way, but now you're willing to deport United States citizens to a prison,
23:54which, by the way, its own government officials have said on record, you cannot leave, and if you leave, you're leaving in a body bag.
24:04So just for the record, you're about to vote to authorize the Department of Homeland Security to deport United States citizens to foreign prisons,
24:15in which the government itself of these countries have said, you cannot leave that prison, and if you do, you're leaving in a body bag.
24:24I just want to make sure that I put that on the record as you're thinking about why you ran for office,
24:30who you represent, and representing and upholding the Constitution.
24:35With that, I yield back.
24:36General Lady Yields, I now recognize the ranking member.
24:38Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
24:40Again, this is a common-sense amendment.
24:45It's unfortunate that we have to offer it because it's already in law,
24:53but if we have to try to prevent monies being spent in support of an illegal act, then so be it.
25:02As a child, in elementary school, we learned the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag.
25:12A lot of our members wear flags in their lapel.
25:15It talks about how much they love America, how much this democracy is great.
25:20But one of the tenets of this democracy is that not only if you are accused of something, you get to face your accuser.
25:31You get to provide an adequate defense.
25:35If you can't, we'll help pay for it because we want to give you the benefit of the doubt.
25:39What we've done is taken the benefit of the doubt away from American citizens and said, it doesn't matter.
25:47If you don't look like somebody, we'll deport you.
25:51If you do look like somebody, we'll still deport you.
25:54That's not who we are.
25:56And it's so unfortunate because I would not question anyone's patriotism on this committee
26:04because you signed an oath after being elected to this office to do and follow the law.
26:13But clearly, what's the problem with saying you can't deport American citizens?
26:23What's the problem with saying we're not going to spend any money deporting American citizens to a foreign country?
26:31In some instances, they've never been there, don't know anyone.
26:35And being mean doesn't make you legal.
26:39So I encourage my colleagues that at some point when we vote, you could have a constituent of someone in this same situation.
26:51It could be a family member.
26:52And you'd want every opportunity for the law to prevail in keeping that person here in America.
27:00I encourage you to think about it.
27:03And it's really almost an embarrassment that we have to make an amendment that's already the law.
27:12And the fact that you're going to vote against it for whatever reason, other than Donald Trump is telling you,
27:21you either vote my way or I'm going to primary you come next election.
27:27But, you know, this is America.
27:30We have to stand on principle.
27:33One man can't run everything.
27:36One man can't have his way in every instance.
27:42One man can't be right 100% of the time.
27:45And I just can't understand how adults, for whatever reason, won't challenge a president when they know that president is wrong.
27:59I yield back.
28:01Gentlemen, would anyone else care to make a comment on the amendment, to the amendment?
28:05Hearing none, the question now occurs on the amendment offered by Mr. Magaziner.
28:17All those in favor, say aye.
28:19All those opposed, say no.
28:21No.
28:22In the opinion of the chair, the no is.
28:23No.
28:37No.
28:39No.
28:47No.