House Democrats on Immigration Enforcement: 9.16.26 (Recess Bonus) · Congress by FedNet · Radar

Jayapal Calls to Shut Down Detention0:36 – 7:12

Pramila JayapalGuest

0:36

Hi, everybody.

Pramila JayapalGuest

0:37

Thank you so much to Detention Watch Network for bringing us together and for all of your work over the years with us.

Pramila JayapalGuest

0:45

Thank you to all the advocates who are here from all the different organizations and organizations Thank you for making your voice heard.

Pramila JayapalGuest

0:52

It really, really matters.

Pramila JayapalGuest

0:55

My name is Pramila Jayapal.

Pramila JayapalGuest

0:56

I'm the representative for Washington's 7th Congressional District.

Pramila JayapalGuest

1:00

I'm also the top Democrat on the Immigration Subcommittee.

Pramila JayapalGuest

1:04

And I've been in the streets with many of you before I ever got to Congress, and I continue to do that work here.

Pramila JayapalGuest

1:09

We are here today to say this simple message.

Pramila JayapalGuest

1:12

Shut it down.

Pramila JayapalGuest

1:14

Shut it down.

Pramila JayapalGuest

1:17

shut down the private for-profit detention centers, stopped the incarceration of 65,000 immigrants in these for-profit facilities every single night at enormous cost to taxpayers and enormous cruelty to detainees.

Pramila JayapalGuest

1:35

Stop treating people like animals with rotting food, dirty and insufficient water, and terrible medical care.

Pramila JayapalGuest

1:43

We demand justice and accountability for all of this, and we will shut it down.

Pramila JayapalGuest

1:51

That is exactly what my bill, Dignity for Detained Immigrants, does.

Pramila JayapalGuest

1:55

It shuts down all private for-profit prisons.

Pramila JayapalGuest

2:00

It ends the use of mandatory detention.

Pramila JayapalGuest

2:03

It ends family detention.

Pramila JayapalGuest

2:05

And it ends the detention of pregnant and vulnerable people.

Pramila JayapalGuest

2:09

It finally puts dignity, decency, and humanity first.

Pramila JayapalGuest

2:15

The use of detention for civil immigration offenses has grown over the past decades under sadly both Republican and Democratic presidents.

Pramila JayapalGuest

2:26

And back in 2008, as the leader of an immigrant rights organization at that time, I authored the first ever report in this country on human rights abuses in the Tacoma Detention Center.

Pramila JayapalGuest

2:39

That was a prescient warning of what was to come.

Pramila JayapalGuest

2:43

Now Donald Trump and Republicans have supercharged this entire system with hundreds of billions of dollars of funding into these private for-profit companies who pad their own pockets and then turn around and bankroll the campaigns of Trump and Republicans.

Pramila JayapalGuest

3:03

Today in America, there are over 150 private for-profit detention centers.