Joaquin Castro

Mr. CASTRO of Texas

Mr. CASTRO of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize a constituent of mine, John Whitehurst, who is on a trip to Japan this week in honor of his father, U.S. Army Major Collin Whitehurst, Jr., who died as a prisoner of war (POW) during World War II. John Whitehurst is in Japan as a guest of the Japanese government, along with a delegation of former POWs and their families. Major Whitehurst was born in Richmond, Virginia in 1914 and grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio. In 1934, he received an appointment to the United States Military Academy (USMA) at West Point where he was a pistol marksman and a member of the Chapel Choir and Glee Club. After graduation, Major Whitehurst was assigned to Fort Thomas, Kentucky, with Headquarters Company, 10th Infantry Regiment. It was there, in December 1939, that he married Rose Eva Knuebel, an officer's daughter. In June 1940, Major Whitehurst sailed to the Philippines, where he was first stationed near Manila, then on the island province of Bohol, and later on the island of Leyte. After the United States entered the war in December, 1941, Major Whitehurst was assigned to the staff of the Commanding General of the Visayan-Mindanao Force, Major General William F. Sharp on Mindanao. On May 10, 1942, under the threat of a massacre of all the POWs on the Philippine island of Corregidor, General Sharp reluctantly surrendered his forces on Mindanao. After being held at Camp Casisang, Major Whitehurst and the other POWs on Mindanao were moved to the Davao Penal Colony No. 502. During his 21 months of imprisonment at Davao, Major Whitehurst and the acting Episcopalian chaplain sought to lift the spirits of the camp, organizing and training a choir for religious services. Following a brief period of agricultural labor at a Cabanatuan, Philippines work site, Major Whitehurst and nearly 1,800 other prisoners were loaded onto the Japanese Arisan Maru, known as a ``hell ship.'' While in transit to Japan, the convoy was attacked by American submarines and the Arisan Maru was torpedoed and sunk. Only nine of the POWs survived--Major Whitehurst was among those who tragically died. In a letter to Major Whitehurst's parents following his death, General Sharp wrote: ``Your son was a fine, loyal officer who did excellent work while serving with my Command. He was always cheerful and willing; he made a lasting impression on all with whom he came into contact. Collin's spirit never wavered during the long months of his imprisonment. We few still living who knew him cherish his memory.'' On October 25, 2004, 60 years and a day after Major Whitehurst's death, the Whitehurst family dedicated a memorial marker in Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery commemorating his life and service. John Whitehurst, Major Whitehurst's only son, has helped keep his father's memory and patriotism alive. John, who was born in Manila, has lived most of his life in Texas. A passionate social worker, John has also taken time to attend American Defenders of Bataan and Corregidor Memorial Society conventions since 2002, and serves on the organization's Board of Directors. Twice, he has returned to the Philippines, including a visit for the dedication of the Hell Ship Memorial at Subic Bay. I wish Mr. Whitehurst a fulfilling trip to Japan this week, and I offer him and his entire family my gratitude for his father's service and tremendous sacrifice for the United States.

Mr. CASTRO of Texas

Mr. CASTRO of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I thank Ranking Member Engel for yielding me this time and also thank Chairman Royce for all of his work in this region of the world. Representative Wagner and I cofounded the Congressional Caucus on ASEAN, the Association of South East Asian Nations, earlier this year to deepen the United States' and Congress' engagement with Southeast Asia. H. Res. 311, the resolution we are considering here today, commemorates the 50th anniversary of the founding of ASEAN. It also marks 40 years of relations between the United States and ASEAN. This measure highlights the work ASEAN has done towards improving stability, prosperity, and peace in Southeast Asia. It also speaks to the importance of continued security cooperation, economic partnership, and cultural engagement between the United States and ASEAN. ASEAN serves as an example of successful regional cooperation. The nations of Southeast Asia, despite distinct histories, cultures, and religions, have placed their faith in cooperation rather than conflict. U.S. security interests in Southeast Asia are wide-ranging and supported by many regional partners. Members of ASEAN have worked closely with the United States to address our mutual concerns. The member states of ASEAN also hold significant economic promise, and our economic relationship underpins much of U.S. engagement in the region. My home State of Texas, for example, exports over $13 billion worth of goods to ASEAN countries every year. These exports support over 70,000 Texas jobs and over 500,000 jobs across the United States. The U.S.-ASEAN relationship is also built on history and cultural exchange. Millions of Americans can trace their family roots to countries of ASEAN, including 400,000 Texans. Language, literature, food, and music link our cultures across the ocean, set roots, and enrich both our societies. Mr. Speaker, for these reasons and many more, it is important that we recognize and commemorate the impact of ASEAN across the years.

Mr. CASTRO of Texas

Mr. CASTRO of Texas. Mr. Chairman, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. CASTRO of Texas. Mr. Chairman, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. CASTRO of Texas. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chairman, my amendment would prohibit the Department of Homeland Security from entering into contracts with privatized immigration detention facilities for fiscal year 2018. A study done by the Homeland Security Advisory Council's Subcommittee on Privatized Immigration Detention Facilities found that privatized detention facilities experienced a multitude of issues, including deficiencies in staffing, subpar medical care, inefficient abuse reporting systems, and a lack of transparency. Further, an in-depth report on two of the country's private detention facilities show further injustices, such as inadequate access to legal information and services. It is best that DHS is prohibited from doing business with these facilities until these issues are resolved and it is shown that these facilities meet ICE's Performance-Based National Detention Standards. This amendment is necessary, as the government's reliance on privatized facilities will continue to grow, based on trends in detention. In fact, only 9.2 percent of detained individuals are in ICE-owned facilities. We must ensure that detained individuals are treated humanely and that they have access to due process. Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. CASTRO of Texas. Mr. Chairman, studies have shown repeatedly that these private detention centers are of a lower quality than publicly owned facilities. There is something very perverse about an industry in the private detention and private prison industry that basically profits off of mass incarceration and that has an economic incentive to get more people into detention, into jail, into prison, and, at the same time, tries to do everything that it can to cut costs and cut corners. In doing so, it fails not only its public charge and its duty, but also terribly fails the people entrusted to it. The fact is that these private prisons, the detention centers, the companies that own them, hired lobbyists in California, for example, within the last few years. They had 70 lobbyists. One of the companies had 70 lobbyists on staff. They lobby for harsher criminal penalties. Why? Because the more people that have to be detained, the more money they make. That simply is not how the criminal justice system should work and that is not how we should do detention within the immigration realm. Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. CASTRO of Texas. Mr. Chairman, this is about treating people as humanely as possible. When profit is the main thing that drives the decisions on detention, incarceration, the conditions in which people are detained, then we are doing a severe injustice to those folks. Because of that, I ask my colleagues to support this amendment. Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. CASTRO of Texas

Mr. CASTRO of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to bring up H.R. 3440, the DREAM Act, to protect Julia, who joined Teach For America and is a middle school teacher in San Antonio, Texas, my hometown.

Mr. CASTRO of Texas

Mr. CASTRO of Texas. Mr. Chairman, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. CASTRO of Texas. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chairman, the underlying bill provides $5 million for the CBP Camera Technology Initiative. My amendment would simply double the funding for this initiative by providing an additional $5 million for a total of $10 million. In 2015, CBP released the findings of a yearlong body-worn camera feasibility study, concluding that body-worn cameras would have ``positive benefits.'' The study found numerous benefits, including enhanced training capabilities through the utilization of footage as a learning tool; strengthened officer and agent performance and accountability; reduced hostilities between officers/agents and citizens; a reduction in the number of allegations and complaints; and increased officer and agent safety by influencing public behavior. Law enforcement agencies across the country are quickly adopting body-worn camera technology because they see similar benefits. However, body-worn cameras are expensive, so it is necessary to provide additional resources for CBP to deploy the technology more effectively and in greater numbers. We need to ensure that we outfit as many Border Patrol agents with body cameras as we can for the current 19,000 agents, as well as the additional 5,000 Border Patrol agents this bill would provide for. Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. CASTRO of Texas. Mr. Chairman, earlier this year, DHS Secretary John Kelly told the Congressional Hispanic Caucus that he did not oppose requiring agents to wear body cameras, as long as Congress provides the necessary funding. My amendment would do just that. There are tremendous safety and accountability benefits to having video records of law enforcement interactions with the public, both for law enforcement officers and for the public. I would note that a few years ago, when we debated body cameras for law enforcement, at that time, the majority accepted my amendment to increase body camera funding for law enforcement officers by $10 million. In fact, my hometown of San Antonio, I believe, now every patrol officer is outfitted with a body camera. I respect the chairman's concerns about the cost of storage, but I would ask the chairman and my colleagues to consider the fact that the cost of storage, this $10 million, is a small cost when we are talking about people's lives. That could be the lives of the agents themselves or the lives of people that they interact with in the public. Law enforcement, by and large--putting aside CBP agents for now, police departments across the country have accepted this technology as not only the thing of the future, but the thing of the present, what they are using now. Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. CASTRO of Texas. Mr. Chairman, how much time do I have remaining?

Mr. CASTRO of Texas. Mr. Chairman, again, I understand those concerns. But just as we have cameras here, so that the public can listen to every word that is being said in this Chamber, it is important that when law enforcement officers, including CBP officers, are interacting with the public--and that includes many U.S. citizens, not just immigrants who are coming across the border or folks who are coming across checkpoints, but United States citizens and legal residents. And for the sake of the agents, who may also have false accusations made against them, that is why this is important. Because there are sometimes accusations that are made that can be rebutted by this evidence. The American people, just as they want this process to be transparent, they want that process to also be transparent with as much accountability as possible. And for the United States Congress not to move forward with that and commit what is really a poultry sum of $10 million and show a willingness to do that, I think is ignoring what most of the American people want. As I mentioned before, I worked with the San Antonio Police Department. They came to me and said: Will you help us get these body cameras? We put in a request for a grant. We got $1 million to cover the officers who were on patrol. I have not heard in San Antonio a complaint from those officers about body cameras. And studies have shown that, as I mentioned, it has reduced the tension between law enforcement officers and the public. I respect the gentleman, and I understand the arguments, but I think that, on a whole, this is a matter of transparency, accountability, and people's lives, and we ought to do this. Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. CASTRO of Texas. Mr. Chairman, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. CASTRO of Texas. Mr. Chair, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. CASTRO of Texas. Mr. Chair, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chair, in its report accompanying this bill, the Appropriations Committee states that: ``ICE is currently evaluating the use of body- worn cameras for potential use in its field enforcement activities, and notes that such cameras can be important tools for both holding law enforcement personnel accountable and for exonerating officers accused of wrongdoing.'' My amendment would support ICE's use of body-worn cameras by providing $10 million exclusively for ICE to deploy this technology. The citizens of this country have come to expect law enforcement officers to wear body cameras even when enforcing immigration laws, and law enforcement agencies throughout the country are quickly adopting this technology. Body-worn cameras are widely supported, because they are important tools that improve officer interactions with the public, deescalate conflicts, and improve public trust in law enforcement, but this tool is expensive, so we need to provide the resources ICE needs to get its program up and running. The $10 million in this amendment mirrors the amount of money I am requesting for border patrol agent cameras. Mr. Chair, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. CASTRO of Texas. Again, Mr. Chairman, this is an issue, fundamentally, of transparency and accountability; and the argument that I hear coming from the other side is that this is an evidentiary issue and that it is going to be too much of a hassle, so we don't want to hear or see what is in these cameras or on this video. That cannot be a responsible approach to law enforcement or to our judicial system. I am asking in this amendment for $10 million. We spend more in furniture in this Chamber, in this House of Representatives, than the amount of money that I am requesting in this amendment. We spend more on Member travel every year than the amount of money that I am requesting in this amendment to make sure that both agents and the public are safer. Let me give you an example, one example of what body cameras recently found in Baltimore, Maryland. An officer was seen on camera, a body camera recorded an officer planting drugs that he then pretended to find on a suspect. A week later, another officer was also found to be planting evidence. Are we saying tonight that the American people and our judicial system don't want to see that evidence because of some storage problem? And, by the way, technology and the cloud have made storage a lot cheaper, so I think that information is outdated. The argument on that side is outdated. To vote ``no,'' to recommend against this amendment, is to say that we are going to see no evil, hear no evil, and we are, instead, going to let both agents who may face false accusations, as they did, I'm sure, in the 1960s and 1970s and 1980s and 1990s, and others who were victims of the use of force in the 1970s, we are just going to turn a blind eye and continue that practice. That cannot be the policy of this Congress. That is not the future of the American judicial system and our policing system. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. CASTRO of Texas. Mr. Chairman, how much time do I have remaining?

Mr. CASTRO of Texas. People's lives are at stake. When we talk about policing practices and transparency, accountability, the use of body cameras, these things have made people safer in their communities. They have made law enforcement safer. The concern about what could happen or what might happen, this technology is already being widely used among police officers and police departments across the country. The chairman gave the example of the Department of Public Safety using dash cams. Dash cams have been used on law enforcement vehicles for a long time, and that did not break the bank of the State of Texas. The State of Texas has a $10 billion rainy day fund right now, a surplus. $10 million, which is what this amendment requests, is a small amount of money compared to the amount of money that we spend on furniture in this place. Are we saying that we don't want to discover whether somebody is planting evidence or whether somebody is making a false accusation against an ICE agent who is just trying to do his or her job, that, instead, we are going to turn a blind eye to that because we would rather spend it on leather seats or Member travel or something else? This is the future. These cameras are going to be used at some point by Border Patrol, by ICE, by law enforcement. As I said, law enforcement stepped forward and requested my assistance in getting money for body cameras in San Antonio, and so I hope that my colleagues will find it in themselves to support this amendment. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. CASTRO of Texas. Mr. Chairman, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. CASTRO of Texas

Mr. CASTRO of Texas. Madam Speaker, I rise today to offer my condolences to the loved ones and families of the 10 victims who died in the tragic human smuggling incident that took place in my hometown of San Antonio, Texas, over the weekend. Many before them have sought to come to our country by land and sea, and have perished. These were not Americans, but they are children of God. This was, above all else, politics aside, a human tragedy. Please join me in a moment of silence to remember the victims and the countless others like them who have lost their lives in pursuit of the American Dream.

Mr. CASTRO of Texas

Mr. CASTRO of Texas. Madam Speaker, I will spare you that. Madam Speaker, I voice my support for H.R. 3180, the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2018. The men and women of America's intelligence community, the best in the world, protect our country every day. They serve beyond the front lines of conflict to collect and analyze intelligence on our adversaries. In addition to being highly effective, America's intelligence community adapts as the threats our country faces shift on a daily basis. Their effectiveness is amplified when they are in close cooperation and coordination with policymakers. I want to thank my fellow members on the committee, especially Ranking Member Schiff and Chairman Nunes, for working with me to add language into this bill requiring the intelligence community to brief Congress on our intelligence capabilities in the South China Sea. Over $5 trillion in ship-borne commerce flows through the region each year, including the vast majority of sea-borne energy imports by close U.S. partners such as Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan. The security of the United States and those of these partners is closely linked to the ability of the United States to guarantee the freedom of navigation in the South China Sea. Our ongoing territorial disputes in the South China Sea threaten the principles of a rules-based order and the security of the United States and our allies. The language in the IAA allows Congress to more effectively understand the needs of the intelligence community. It allows for a two-way conversation so that Congress can act to provide the intelligence community the tools and authorities it needs to inform policymakers.

Mr. CASTRO of Texas

Mr. CASTRO of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I thank Ranking Member Engel for yielding. I also thank Chairman Royce for his leadership on the sanctions package. The American people have been waiting some time for the sanctions package to finally pass. This bill dials up our current sanctions on North Korea, Iran, and Russia to hold their governments accountable for their destabilizing actions. The Russia piece in this package is particularly necessary. Russia has flagrantly violated international law by invading Ukraine and interfering in American and European elections. These sanctions are a clear signal that the United States will hold President Putin and his close associates accountable for their actions. They are also a declaration that Congress can and will act, even when President Trump refuses to do so. In addition to these sanctions, Congress must continue to investigate to determine the scope of Russia's attack on America's democracy and establish which Americans, if any, aided in those efforts. Again, I thank Ranking Member Engel, Chairman Royce, and everyone in this Congress who has supported these sanctions.

Mr. CASTRO of Texas

Mr. CASTRO of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life and legacy of Jaime Martinez, a son of San Antonio and civil rights leader who left an indelible mark on our city and nation. He was raised on the West Side of San Antonio by his grandparents, immigrants to the United States who had an appreciation for President Franklin Delano Roosevelt that resonated with Jaime in his youth. They involved him at an early age in La Sociedad Mutualista Mexicana, which taught Jaime the importance of serving the community and helping others. After attending Lanier High School, Jaime pursued his passion for music, and toured with a number of bands across the United States and Canada before returning to San Antonio in 1966. Shortly after, he joined the International Union of Electrical Workers (IUE, now the IUE- AFL-CIO) Local 780. Jaime went on to become the Secretary Treasurer for the Executive Board of IUE District 11, the first Mexican American to do so at the national level, and served as the National Labor Coordinator for Coordinadora 96. A talented and passionate organizer, Jaime served as first vice president for the Central Labor Council of the AFL-CIO and as president of the national Labor Council of Latin American Advancement (LCLAA). Also a strong advocate for immigrant rights, Jaime founded and was president of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) Council No. 4626 in San Antonio. Later, he became the National Chairperson of the Immigration Committee tor LCLAA and treasurer of LULAC at the national level. For nearly two decades, until his passing, Jaime also served as the founder and chairman of the Cesar Chavez Legacy and Educational Foundation. Jaime is survived by his wife, Maria Guadalupe Martinez; his daughter, Sarah Marie Martinez; his sons Ernest J. Martinez and Christopher Michael Martinez; his daughter-in-law Joyce A. Martinez; and his granddaughters Erika, Kayla, Amanda, and Sophia. I wish the entire Martinez family comfort and solace at this difficult time. Jaime's life of leadership and service improved the lives of workers and immigrants across the country. He will be missed.

Mr. CASTRO of Texas

Mr. CASTRO of Texas. I yield to the gentlewoman from Wisconsin.