U.S. Reps. Jasmine Crockett and Joaquin Castro called for the disbanding of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement at a Wednesday press conference outside San Antonio City Hall.
The Texas Democrats spoke in front of a crowd of roughly 100 and were joined by 20 other state and local leaders, including Austin U.S. Rep. Greg Casar. Texas State Reps. Gina Hinojosa and Trey Martinez Fischer also spoke at the event.
Crockett and Castro traveled to the event after receiving a tour of the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, about an hour Southwest of San Antonio. While at the immigrant detention center, Castro met and spoke with 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father Angel Arias, who were detained by ICE in Minneapolis last week.
“His father said that Liam has been depressed, that he hasn’t been eating well,” Castro said. “I told him that we would do anything that we could to get him out of there. I demanded that ICE release him. I told them that most of America wants Liam to be released, and that he should be released immediately.”
“You know the president is lying. You’ve seen it with your very eyes,” San Antonio-Austin U.S. Rep Greg Casar said. “Liam is not the only young person who has had their life destroyed and turned upside down by the chaos and cruelty of Trump’s deportation policies.”
Some 1,100 people are currently detained inside the family detention center in Dilley, including many children.
“There are no criminals at Dilley,” Castro added. “None of those people have committed a crime.”
“Liam is emblematic of our detention system and ICE operations,” the congressman added. “There are many kids who are in detention as well, and Jasmine and I met with them and their families. There’s a 2-month-old baby that’s been there for four or five days.”
State Rep. Hinojosa, who’s running for governor on the Democratic ticket, directed her ire at those who profit from the private prison industrial complex that banked record-breaking profits last year as President Donald Trump ramped up detention of immigrants.
“Last year, these private prisons started getting these contracts to hold people taken by ICE,” Hinojosa said. “One is GEO Group, one is Core Civic. Core Civic is the largest owner of private real estate that the government uses. Their biggest investor is BlackRock, a multinational corporation that’s in the business of maximizing profits for its shareholders. Those profits are, by the way, 100% paid for by the taxpayer.”
Castro reserved his most stinging criticism for Trump and Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller.
“If you’re going to be an architect of this kind of viciousness and brutality and inhumanity, then you should have the guts to go to a facility like Dilley and sit face-to-face, eye-to-eye with these kids and tell them why you believe they belong there,” Castro said.
In their remarks, both Crockett and Castro cited the current appropriations bill that earmarks another $64 billion for the Department of Homeland Security, including $10 billion in additional funding for ICE.
“I believe we should disband ICE,” Castro said. “I support the impeachment of [Department of Homeland Security chief] Kristi Noem, and I don’t believe the Senate, the House or Congress should give another dime to ICE in this appropriations bill.”
“No, we won’t fund this nonsense,” Crockett added “We both voted ‘no’ on that bill. We are asking our colleagues in the Senate to do their part. Stand up for people. Stand up and show them what humanity looks like.”
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