news

Yesterday, Congresswoman Veronica Escobar (TX-16) spoke during the House Appropriations Committee mark up of the Fiscal Year 2027 Homeland Security Bill. In her remarks, she spoke on seven amendments. She spoke in support of an amendment banning construction of a wall at Big Bend National Park. She also spoke on the six amendments she proposed, two of which were accepted and included into the legislation.

The amendment on Big Bend National Park, provided by Ranking Member Henry Cuellar, was to prohibit the construction of a barrier or wall at Big Bend. It was rejected by Republicans.

The first amendment provided by Rep. Escobar was to prohibit the design, construction, and operation of immigration detention facilities at military installations. This amendment was rejected by Republicans.

The second amendment provided by Rep. Escobar was to prevent the use of federal funds to construct a wall at Mt. Cristo Rey.  It was rejected by Republicans.

The third amendment provided by Rep. Escobar was to direct ICE to continue the existing required reporting on deaths of formerly detained individuals that occur within 30 days of being released from ICE custody. Recent reporting has suggested ICE plans to do away with this requirement. It was rejected by Republicans.

The fourth amendment provided by Rep. Escobar was to provide $50 million in funding for the DHS Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. It was rejected by Republicans.

The fifth amendment provided by Rep. Escobar was to direct the Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) to submit a report to the Appropriations Committee detailing the findings of the criminal report and OPR’s investigation into the homicide at Camp East Montana. This was a result of the Government Accountability Office (GAO) report that was published earlier this week in which it was found that evidence related to the homicide was “destroyed or went missing.” This amendment was accepted.

The sixth amendment provided by Rep. Escobar was to direct ICE to recover the funds it overpaid to contractors for meal services at Camp East Montana. As a result of the Government Accountability Office (GAO) report that was published earlier this week, it was reported that contractors were paid millions in taxpayer dollars for meals that were not needed. This amendment was accepted.

A transcript of her remarks for every amendment can be found below, and a video for every section can be found hyperlinked to the highlighted section of the transcript:

Amendment on preventing barrier at Big Bend National Park

Congresswoman Escobar: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I rise to support the Ranking Member's amendment. I don't know if any of you in this room outside of my colleague from Texas, and potentially other colleagues from Texas, have ever been to Big Bend. 

Big Bend is spectacular. I wish our committee could modernize a bit and we could utilize these screens for A/V presentations. I would love to show you video of Big Bend National Park. I would love for you to see the breathtaking beauty of it and the treacherous nature of it as well. It is miles and miles and miles of mountain scape, rivers, Chihuahuan desert creeks, streams, etc. 

For those who camp or hike at Big Bend, they are warned: be careful. You've got to have enough water. You've got to know the landscape because you could die out there. And it is so far removed from urban areas that really it is quite the drive to even get out to Big Bend National Park. Texans in that area and really across our state, in a bipartisan way, have unified around saving Big Bend National Park and preventing a wall from going in there. And I'm telling you, ranchers, law enforcement, local law enforcement, elected officials on both sides of the aisle have said, “Leave Big Bend alone.”  

I want you to imagine putting a wall through the Grand Canyon. That is how we in Texas feel about building a wall through Big Bend, that not only does it not make sense, but it would destroy a national treasure and frankly, it would really negatively impact wildlife and wildlife crossings.

The Trump administration has been very inconsistent in what it has told residents and Texans about a wall or about barriers. And frankly, the people of Texas, especially the people of Texas who love Big Bend, deserve an answer. We have heard from the CBP commissioner and others that no wall will go in there. If that's true, that's great. Let's give Texans then, the assurance that Congress will stand by that commitment, and that we will not allow Big Bend to be destroyed.

You know, the the other component of this that is really scary - I mentioned that there have been mixed signals from the administration - the administration recently waived all environmental laws. And so, Chairman Amodei, you know, I echo what all of our colleagues have said about your leadership, how grateful we all are for your partnership, your friendship, and how much you will be missed. You have said that it would not be responsible, basically to to tie the hands, so to speak, of CBP. I don't think it's responsible to waive environmental laws. Those are there for a reason. And so we need to stand not just with our Ranking Member on this issue, not just with Texans of all backgrounds and of different political persuasions, but really with Americans who treasure our natural resources and incredible places like Big Bend that once destroyed, really cannot be rebuilt.

I urge everyone to vote yes on this amendment. Stand with Texans who are fighting for Big Bend. I yield back.

1st amendment on preventing immigration detention facilities at military installations (Part 1)

Congresswoman Escobar: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Many of you, or some of you, might have heard me talk about the fantastic military installation that I am so proud to represent: Fort Bliss, home of the first Armored Division, home to at least 17,000 soldiers who live on base in a very veteran-friendly, veteran-supportive community. 

And when the One Big, Beautiful Bill was passed last year, one of the things that it contained was $45 billion for new immigration detention facilities. And because the administration wanted to very quickly put up more immigration detention facilities, they felt the easiest place to do that would be a military installation and use military contractors. Now, mind you, the United States of America already has the most number of [immigration] detention facilities, more than any other nation on the planet. 

But that that extraordinary number is not enough for the Trump mass deportation plan, which is why they wanted to build more immigration detention facilities. The facility on Fort Bliss is a $1.3 billion facility. $1.3 billion. It is a tent city. It is a tent city intended to house 5,000 people. 

When the announcement was made that DHS was going to be working with Fort Bliss to build a tent city to house immigrants, I immediately feared the worst, and my worst fears have been realized. And I will tell you, I do not support using our our military facilities for immigration detention, regardless of who is president. I don't care if it's a Democratic president. I don't care if it's a Republican president. I believe our military installations should focus on their mission. My concerns - should this detention facility be built at Fort Bliss - I had concerns about readiness, and I had concerns about security, and I had a multitude of other concerns. Well, the Army issued a no bid contract using their World Expeditionary Multiple Award Contract capability, known as WEXMAC, and they hired a private contractor who had never done this work before. 

For months, I have been sounding the alarm about what's happened inside that facility. I have visited that facility multiple times. I've spoken to detainees inside that facility. We've spoken with whistleblowers who work inside that facility. Families who visited their loved ones inside that facility. And I sounded the alarm about a number of horrific issues. 

Well, yesterday, the GAO released its report affirming many of the things that I've been sounding the alarm about. And, frankly, this is the tip of the iceberg. But let me give you a couple of examples of what's in the report. The report details tens of millions of dollars in waste for food that was paid for with this private contractor that they didn't need, because for the first two weeks they had no inmates, but because the Army did the contracting - the Army doesn't do immigration detention. This was the contract, and so a private contractor made off with tens of millions of dollars for food for detainees that were not being held in the facility.

The - another detail in this report is that they discovered there was one person who escaped from the facility. This is on a military installation. I actually know for a fact that three people escaped. This is on a military installation. One of the private security guards who works for the private company lost his loaded gun. This is in the GAO report. That loaded gun has still not been found. This is on a military installation. 

There was a homicide inside that detention facility. And that homicide - what the GAO report discovered was that evidence was disposed of and missing. So I'm here to ask this committee to please help me put a stop to immigration detention facilities going on military installations. That should never have happened. This report gives only a handful of examples of why that shouldn't happen. And my amendment, Mr. Chairman, would ensure that doesn't happen again. I yield back.

1st amendment on preventing immigration detention facilities at military installations (Part 2)

Congresswoman Escobar: And to the Defense Chairman, this amendment is written to prohibit DHS from essentially building immigration detention on a military installation. So it would not require removal. It doesn't impact the use of troops on that extended NDA at all. It's - this is only about immigration detention facilities. 

And the gentlelady is correct. While the Department of the Army is not running the private or not running the immigration detention facility, neither is ICE. It is a private corporation that the Army has on the military installation because it's needed more detention space, because of, you know, the desire to exponentially grow our immigration detention capacity. We are essentially allowing private contractors to go on the military installation to run this immigration detention facility. 

We've already seen a private contractor lose a loaded gun, a private contractor killed a detainee, and all of this is happening on our military installation. I believe we should protect our military installations from private contractors like this. There's been little to no accountability. I had to engage the help of Mr. Amodei to get a copy of the contract with the private contractor, and it took months for us to get it. And even when we did get it, they only gave us a draft. Furthermore, there's been an effort to evade even more accountability and oversight. 

So I mentioned the homicide that took place inside of Camp East Montana, which is on Fort Bliss, which is run by a private contractor. It was the El Paso County Medical Examiner who determined that one of the - there have been multiple deaths at that facility - but it was the El Paso County Medical Examiner who told the public this is a homicide. So what did the private contractor do after that? We're going to use the military medical examiner instead. And it's a way to evade our oversight and any accountability.

If the Department of Homeland Security and if Congress gives them the power to do what they want to do, which is build, you know, [gazillion] more square feet of immigration detention, this amendment doesn't stop them from doing it. This amendment says you won't do it on a military installation. 

We have to stand with our military leaders. They're not going to tell you publicly or outright, but I think if you ask them how they feel about this, they don't like it. And I didn't support it when President Biden did it. And in fact, I was very vocally opposed to President Biden using Fort Bliss for child detention. The military needs to be separate and kept separated from immigration detention, and our military installations should not be used for these purposes. I thank the gentlelady.

2nd amendment on Mt. Cristo Rey (Part 1)

Congresswoman Escobar: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This amendment is very similar to the amendment that was brought forward by the Ranking Member earlier in this markup. 

The Department of Homeland Security is suing the Catholic Church in my region. My neighboring community of Las Cruces, New Mexico, and they are suing the Catholic Church in order to eminent domain, a what is considered a very sacred site for Catholics in the region.

Mount Cristo Rey is a mountain that is adjacent to my community. It's actually in Representative Gabe Vasquez's district. At its peak, there is a 29ft statue of Jesus Christ that was dedicated in 1939, and over the years, Mount Cristo Rey has become an annual pilgrimage destination that is visited by over 40,000 Americans every year. The faithful from Texas, New Mexico, the state of Chihuahua participate in pilgrimages on Good Friday in the spring, and on the Feast of Christ the King or Cristo Rey.

In the fall, there is hiking that happens there, not just during religious holidays, but there is hiking that happens there throughout the year. This has really touched a nerve in our region. El Paso and Las Cruces is a very Mexican Catholic region, and the idea that the Department of Homeland Security wants to essentially tear away at that mountain to build a wall. Obviously, many of our faithful are deeply concerned that they will no longer be able to make their pilgrimages, but it is also seen as a desecration of a sacred site. I ask for your support in telling the Department of Homeland Security to please not do this. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, I yield back.

2nd amendment on Mt. Cristo Rey (Part 2)

Congresswoman Escobar: I am so grateful for my colleagues who rose in support of my region, and I'd like to echo what our Ranking Member said. Those of us who live in our communities really do know our community's best. I have said this before as well. I am a third generation border resident, born and raised on the US Mexico border. My kids, fourth generation. No one wants a safe and secure border more than those of us who live there. 

And what this amendment asks is that DHS respect the community, respect the Catholic Church, the property of the Catholic Church, respect a place that draws pilgrims from all over the country, a place of natural beauty, and preserve it instead of desecrated.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, I yield back.

3rd amendment on Detainee Deaths after Release from Custody (Part 1)

Congresswoman Escobar: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. On Friday we found out that ICE - per a memo sent by the Acting Director - would be discontinuing a policy that requires the agency to report the deaths of recently released detainees if they die within 30 days of being released from custody. 

I want to share with you all something that you might have heard already from our colleague Angie Craig, but she had a constituent who was arrested and flown to El Paso to Camp East Montana on Fort Bliss. Her constituent had a massive ovarian cyst, and she was going to get surgery to have the cyst removed before she was detained and flown to El Paso by ICE. They didn't deport her. They just held her for four months. 

Representative Craig was asking for humanitarian parole. Her senator asked for humanitarian parole. ICE is now allowed to release people who likely have been harmed by ICE, detaining people for a significant period of time without release, and they don't want to be held accountable for it. Let's not let them. I yield back.

3rd amendment on Detainee Deaths after Release from Custody (Part 2)

Congresswoman Escobar: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I shared with you all earlier about the report about this facility, Camp East Montana. The GAO report documents how appropriate medical care has been withheld from detainees. And this is why I gave you the example of our colleague Angie Craig and her constituent, who was held for four months, though her lawyers repeatedly told ICE she needs this surgery, she was scheduled to get the surgery the week she was detained, and for four months, not only was she denied that surgery while she was held in custody, she was given aspirin for her pain. 

And now ICE wants to make sure we don't learn about deaths that happened within the 30 days of release. That's not acceptable. 

And I'll say one last thing to Mr. Amodei. Chairman, you gave a - I think - a totally appropriate speech at the beginning where you said, don't guess my motivations, please don't guess mine.

4th amendment on Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties

Congresswoman Escobar: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This next amendment is pretty simple. It would fund DHS office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties at a level of $50 million from the current funding level in the bill of $5.1 million.

DHS' Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties provides critical oversight services for DHS and its agencies by investigating complaints about constitutional rights, including privacy or excessive use of force, reviewing deaths in ICE custody and CBP involved death, and making recommendations and influencing policies to ensure heightened transparency and responsiveness. 

This administration has slowly been whittling away at this funding in order to do away with this office. I ask for your support to fund it at levels that it has been funded before. Lord knows we need the oversight more than ever.

I yield back.

5th amendment on CEM Homicide Investigation

Congresswoman Escobar: So you see on our amendment list, that some of my amendments were late, and in part it was because we received this GAO report yesterday which gave me the evidence you all have been hearing me talk about really for some time now - talk about what was happening inside of Camp East Montana, which is at Fort Bliss on our premier military installation.

But I finally had the evidence. So this is why I included some added amendments to today's markup. This amendment is about a report on the homicide that I told you all about in a prior discussion about a previous amendment. There have been multiple deaths, as I've shared with all of you inside of Camp East Montana. In fact, the number of deaths of people in ICE custody is at a historic and unconscionable high.

One of the dead individuals, one of the detainees who died in custody, was sent to the El Paso County Medical Examiner who ruled that death a homicide. I read the autopsy. It's pretty shocking. It was clear from the autopsy that someone had been murdered. So I asked DHS multiple times, what's the status? Surely we're not going to let this go unaccounted for.

Didn't hear back from Mr. Lyons for a long time. Finally, I got an answer from Mr. Lyons just before he left the agency, and he said, we've referred it to DOJ. Well, what we learned in this GAO report that we got yesterday was that evidence was disposed of. 

So it's a crime on top of a crime. What I am asking for is that we direct ICE OPR to submit a report to this committee within 30 days of the conclusion of the ongoing criminal investigation, and ensure the report details the findings of the investigation and the status of OPR's investigation in light of the findings.

I think we deserve to know what happened. I don't think that's too much to ask. I yield back.

6th amendment on CEM fraud, waste, and abuse 

Congresswoman Escobar: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Once again, the evidence of what I have been saying for months is in this GAO report of the tens of millions of dollars of waste, American taxpayer dollars, money that went into a private contractors pocket for money, for food during a time when there were zero detainees at Camp East Montana. Three meals a day for weeks. Zero detainees. But the private contractor got their money. 

I think we should go after that money. And I will tell you, as the GAO report, as damning and explosive as it is, is the tip of the iceberg. In addition to meals that the federal government that the American taxpayer has paid for, that weren't necessary because there were no detainees, we are also paying for janitorial services at that facility. And guess what? The detainees clean their own pods. We are also paying for laundry services at that facility, and I have gone to that facility multiple times and have seen with my own eyes that the detainees wash their own clothes in the sink. They get - I wish I had a sugar packet. Let's pretend this is a sugar packet, but the men and women there get soap about the size of this packet daily to shower. And for women, I mean ladies, that's shampoo and body wash. But because the laundry services are not happening, they would rather use the packet of their shampoo to launder their own clothes. 

And we're paying for that. The American taxpayers: paying for that. Let's go after the money that that contractor pocketed for the food. I would urge - I'm going to urge the GAO to look into what's happening with laundry and cleaning. This is fraud. I yield back.