Alex Padilla U.S. Senator for California

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee, spoke on the Senate floor to hold the Trump Administration accountable for its wrongful deportations of individuals from the United States to El Salvador. Padilla’s floor remarks came ahead of the Senate vote on privileged legislation he is co-leading to demand answers on the Trump Administration’s failure to comply with court orders as applicable to wrongful deportations to El Salvador and to investigate El Salvador’s human rights abuses.

The privileged legislation is co-led by U.S. Senators Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.). Republicans rejected the legislation 45-50 in a party-line vote.

Under Senate rules, the Senators forced a vote on the resolution today that would require the Trump Administration to produce a report detailing any steps the Administration is taking to ensure compliance with court orders applicable to those wrongfully deported by the United States to El Salvador; confirming whether U.S. security assistance has been used to support the illegal detention of individuals from the United States; and assessing El Salvador’s human rights record. If the Administration fails to produce the report, security assistance to El Salvador would be prohibited by federal law.

Padilla began by highlighting the devastating stories of people and their families who were suddenly and recklessly deported from the United States to El Salvador by the Trump Administration without due process, including over 200 migrants sent to El Salvador’s high-security prison, CECOT, with eight women being mistakenly flown out to the all-male prison and then flown back.

• “All across the country, there were stories of families waking up to learn their loved ones had disappeared. A husband with no criminal record detained after a routine immigration appointment, complying with the conditions of his status at the moment; another instance of a makeup artist who had fled Venezuela after being targeted for his sexual orientation and political views, one day gone, simply for having crown tattoos in honor of his parents; a mother who learned the whereabouts of her son only when she saw his face on propaganda videos released by El Salvador.”

• “Hundreds of men have been sent to prison with no trial even. No sentence. No end date. No communication with the outside world.”

Padilla criticized Republicans for trying to cast these individuals as “ruthless terrorist gang members,” despite a report from 60 Minutes last month showing that 75 percent of those deported to CECOT had no criminal record. He reiterated the foundational U.S. right to due process under the law and that many of the people deported by the Trump Administration had pending asylum cases or other immigration protection.

• “If you have committed a crime in the United States of America, then yes, you deserve to be prosecuted. But as we all know — and I hope we continue to respect — that we have a justice system to do just that. A justice system that has a process for those charged with a crime to be found guilty or innocent. Because yes, you have to actually be found guilty in a court to be guilty.”

• “That shouldn’t be controversial. Anybody who claims to be for ‘law and order,’ has to be both for ‘law’ and ‘order.’ You can’t just overlook the law part of the slogan. But Republicans continue to leave out that fact and the fact that the overwhelming majority of those deported had no criminal records.”

• “But simply because they may have tattoos, the Trump Administration has decided to use them for a poorly executed and expensive publicity stunt.”

Padilla warned that President Trump’s dictatorial actions and ignoring of the law pose a threat not only to migrants, but to all Americans.

• “If Republicans allow Donald Trump to make himself judge, jury, and executioner, then we’re all in trouble. This is the behavior of a foreign dictator — not the President of the United States. A dictator who wishes to do away with due process and disappearing loved ones to foreign countries without a trace. Now, this Administration is violating federal law by sending people to places like CECOT and soon, maybe Libya, where they may very well face torture or some other horrific treatment.”

• “And for anybody who thinks that this may not concern them because you’re an American citizen, think again. You may not actually be given an opportunity to prove your citizenship before you’re sent away. Donald Trump has said publicly that he wants to imprison American citizens in El Salvador next. Not my words, his. And so there is no telling where all of this is gonna lead.”

As the Trump Administration has resisted and defied court orders, Padilla pushed his Republican colleagues to support the resolution he is co-leading to hold the President accountable. He concluded his remarks by emphasizing the historical, high stakes nature of this moment for protecting civil liberties and the basic right to due process in the United States.

• “The resolution before us today would force the Trump Administration to start opening up the books, to tell us what meaningful actions they are taking to comply, to be accountable to the American people, and yes, to demand that the Administration publish a report on the human rights violations being committed by the country that Trump is so willingly embracing. But it also does another thing: it puts us all on the record.”

• “History will judge not only those who willingly embraced the erosion of civil rights that’s happening. But it will also judge those who chose to sit back and watch it happen over and over again.”

• “Every member of this body has to decide whether they will stand up and demand answers from the Administration or to sit silently while Trump imprisons innocent men.”

• “This is about more than immigrants or immigration. This is about due process. This is about civil rights. This is about the foundation of our liberties.”

Video of Senator Padilla’s remarks is available here.

Senator Padilla has strongly pushed back against wrongful deportations to El Salvador. Last month, he joined 24 Senators in urging Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) leadership to return Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a father who was living legally in Maryland with his family until the Trump Administration wrongfully deported him without due process to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador. Padilla also joined Senators Van Hollen and Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.) to meet with Abrego Garcia’s family and wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, to discuss the ongoing effort to secure his immediate release. Padilla promised to keep fighting for Abrego Garcia so he can be reunited with his family.

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