Senator Chris Murphy's Substack notes: My Trip to Texas Confirmed We Can't Fund this Version of ICE
The young father was shaking as he held his fidgety two-year-old daughter who impatiently sucked on a lollipop. Across from the father and mother and two-year-old sat an immigration judge, who was struggling with a missing translator, seeking to ask questions of the family in front of him.
I had been asked to enter the courtroom by their lawyer, who was virtually certain of what would happen the minute the family left the judge’s courtroom. The family would be apprehended by the half dozen, plainclothes ICE agents standing immediately outside the door, and effectively disappeared into a shadowy nearby prison to which lawyers and elected officials could barely gain access.
It didn’t matter that this couple had played by the rules. They came to America to follow the process and apply for asylum. They had a good case. They showed up for all their court appearances. And on this day, the judge didn’t order their detainment or removal: he saw merit in their case and scheduled their next hearing.
But the ICE officers didn’t care. They were under orders from President Donald Trump to put in jail EVERY immigrant they could, including children. And no matter the legal status of the family or individual.
As they got up to leave, I huddled with the family and their young, nervous attorney. We decided we would all leave together, proceed quickly to the elevator, and move directly, all as one big blob of humans, to their ride in the parking lot. Our hope was that those ICE officers might not try to cause a scene, and rip the parents and their child away if they were attached at the hip to a U.S. Senator. Our hunch was right. The ICE officers made a half step toward us but then froze, and the family safely left the building.
It wasn’t the job I thought I was coming to Texas to do. I was there to inspect two massive detention centers that house families (including hundreds of small children) who have been ripped out of their communities by Trump’s ICE. When I was illegally denied entry, I decided to spend the following morning at the San Antonio immigration court, to see for myself the dystopian world that Trump’s immigration police have created.
Continued
https://www.chrismurphyct.com/p/my-trip-to-texas-confirmed-we-cant?utm_source=substack&publication_id=1685549&post_id=185546908&utm_medium=email&utm_content=share&utm_campaign=email-share&triggerShare=true&isFreemail=true&r=2rvwjp&triedRedirect=true
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