ICYMI: Reps. Kamlager-Dove, Chu, Colleagues Conduct Oversight at Adelanto ICE Facility
ADELANTO, CA — Yesterday, Congresswoman Sydney Kamlager-Dove (CA-37) gained entry to the Adelanto ICE Processing Center to fulfill her constitutional oversight responsibilities. Alongside Representatives Judy Chu (CA-28), Linda Sánchez (CA-38), Mark Takano (CA-39), and Luz Rivas (CA-29), she demanded answers following reports of inhumane conditions, due process violations, and alarming allegations that U.S. citizens may have been wrongfully detained.
Congresswoman Kamlager-Dove explains what the lawmakers learned in a video shared to social media following the oversight visit.
Following the visit, the lawmakers hosted a press conference to share their experiences at the facility. Congresswoman Kamlager-Dove’s full remarks as-delivered can be found below:
“We should be here talking to you about the $880 billion cut to Medicaid. The closures of Social Security Administration offices. But instead, we are talking about these indiscriminate and illegitimate ICE raids that have been happening across our community.
"I came here today to find my constituents. I have a constituent who is deaf and mute. He was picked up by ICE and transported and we are still looking for him. We had a list of constituents that we are trying to check on. We were conducting oversight and we were also conducting casework.
"And let me tell you, we have had laundromats, we have had churches, we have had elementary schools, we have had small stores raided by [the] FBI [and] Homeland Security, in cooperation with ICE, snatching folks, not asking them for identification, not providing identification or judicial warrants themselves. We talked to the agents in the detention facility, and we did not get concrete information about how folks were lawfully being detained if they did have criminal records or not. Some of that is still being decided while folks are being detained.
"And something else we learned is that people are being detained and separated and let go by race. Now, I don't know about you, but if this Administration said that it was looking for folks with criminal records and they have detained U.S. Citizens, legal immigrants, and folks who are legally going through the immigration status process, then tell me why you are also racially profiling folks and then separating them and doing different things to each of these communities.
"And let me tell you something else. We are decimating the local economy here because most of the folks were students. They were applying for licenses to do work. They have businesses. They have families. They are workers. This is impacting our economy, our regional and state economy.
"And we have an Administration that is interested in manufacturing a violent and traumatizing show called "LA Raids" to distract us from the larger issues that are impacting everyday Americans like the cost of living, the cost of food, the cost of health care. And now we are dealing with an Administration that is racially profiling and detaining folks without giving them the representation that they need.
"This is why we came out here to conduct oversight. And this is why we are going to continue to hold this administration accountable because it is illegitimate. You are denying folks their 4th, their 5th, and their 14th Amendment rights when you are not giving them due process, when people do not know why they have been picked up other than the color of their skin. And we must demand more from this Administration. That is what Congress is trying to do.”
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