“From my home in the Massachusetts 7^th… to Los Angeles, where Donald Trump sent the National Guard and Marines to descend on justice-seeking peaceful protestors – the hurt and harm of this hostile White House is felt by us all.”

“We need solidarity and resistance and a rejection in this moment of these attacks on our immigrant communities. An attack on our immigrant communities is an attack on all of us.”

Video (YouTube)

WASHINGTON – Today, in a fiery floor speech, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (MA-07) delivered a blistering condemnation of Donald Trump’s campaign of terror against immigrant communities, which have inflicted unspeakable trauma on families across the nation and done nothing to make our country safer.

In her remarks, Congresswoman shared heartbreaking stories of families in the Massachusetts 7th impacted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) unlawful raids, condemned Trump’s deployment of the National Guard and Marines to Los Angeles, and called for urgent solidarity with our immigrant neighbors.

A full transcript of her remarks as delivered is available below, and the full video is available here.

Transcript: On House Floor, Pressley Condemns Trump’s ICE Raids, Calls for Solidarity with Immigrant Neighbors

House of Representatives

June 11, 2025

Mr. Chair,

I rise today on behalf of our neighbors and community members, immigrants, our immigrant brothers and sisters who are being targeted and abducted, taken from their homes, torn away from their babies, disappeared on their way to church, work, and to school.

Children crying in their teachers’ arms, families separated, communities traumatized. If they’ve not already been kidnapped, fearful that they will be.

Children crying in their teachers’ arms afraid that they’re going to come home and their parents will be gone.

Elders carrying all of their medications with them in their comings and goings for fear of being abducted and sent somewhere without access to necessary healthcare.

We see a spike in no-shows and cancellations in health clinics as patients would rather miss critical care than risk detainment.

We see young parents and grandparents alike attending their immigration court hearings, eager to officially call this country home, only to be met with handcuffs and shoved into cars by masked ICE individuals.

This is Donald Trump’s America.

But these are real people. Hardworking people whose labor and contributions make our communities a better place.

Young people who show up every day in our schools as part of our learning communities.

These are mothers and fathers working overtime to provide for their children.

In my district, the Massachusetts 7th, my Chelsea constituent Kenia and her three children were driving to a Mother’s Day church service with her husband Daniel when ICE agents in unmarked vehicles ambushed them, broke the passenger’s side window, forcefully extracted Daniel from the car, and slammed his face on the sidewalk while their three watched on in horror.

And in East Boston, my constituent Mercedes and her son are struggling after her husband Jose was arrested at work and detained for two days at an ICE facility in Burlington.

Jose was living here legally with Temporary Protected Status but was told by the ICE agents who detained him that “only people born here have rights.”

These are real people. Real people – children and adults alike – traumatized, whose lives have been disturbed, upended, and irreparably harmed.

Donald Trump and ICE claim that they are committing this assault on our communities in the name of safety.

Terror makes no one safe. It does the opposite. It sows chaos, it breeds fear, and it fosters unrest.

From my home in the Massachusetts 7th – where mothers have wept on my shoulder, pleading for their husbands to come home, for their families to be reunited – to Los Angeles, where Donald Trump sent the National Guard and Marines to descend on justice-seeking peaceful protestors – the hurt and harm of this hostile White House is felt by us all.

This has nothing to do with law and order. That is laughable coming from the most Godless, lawless Oval Office occupant in our history.

This has everything to do with power and control.

Deploying the National Guard without a governor’s approval, taking unwarranted and unprecedented action against peaceful justice-seekers and freedom fighters.

We must see our neighbor’s humanity in this moment.

Yet across the country, occupant Trump is working overtime to be a fascist dictator, to weaponize our government against its own people, to sow fear and chaos, to silence dissenting voices in our communities, at our colleges, in the courts and in fact, even in Congress.

These actions are lawless – a complete violation of our constitutional rights to due process – void of common sense and compassion.

Know this, for those of you watching at home, who might be tempted to think that this is not your problem:

An extremist march towards fascism is everyone’s problem. Trust me, if you’re not already suffering, you will be.

And we need solidarity and resistance and a rejection in this moment of these attacks on our immigrant communities.

An attack on our immigrant communities is an attack on all of us.

As a woman of faith, my God tells me to welcome the stranger. Do not be indifferent to the suffering of your neighbors.

Immigrants make our country a better place. Immigrants make America great. And our immigrant brothers and sisters deserve to call this country home.

I yield back.

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