Pramila Jayapal

Ms. JAYAPAL

Ms. JAYAPAL. Madam Speaker, this is an incredible day. The House will pass the Build Back Better Act, President Biden's popular and necessary agenda, and say to Americans everywhere: We have got your back. Today, we say to families everywhere that we will cut your childcare costs in half and provide universal pre-K to 3- and 4-year-olds. Today, we are finally going to take on Big Pharma, cut the cost of prescription drugs, and make sure that people can afford the cost of insulin. This bill makes the biggest Federal investment in housing in our history and allows America to truly lead on taking on climate change, with half a trillion dollars of investment and 40 percent of those funds going to communities that are most disproportionately burdened by the effects of climate change. For the first time in 35 years, we say to immigrants: You are truly essential, not expendable. We will protect Dreamers, TPS holders, essential workers, and farmworkers. I thank President Biden for his leadership. We will provide transformative change for people across America and invest in our competitiveness; our thriving, not surviving; and our humanity.

Ms. JAYAPAL

Ms. JAYAPAL. Madam Speaker, I missed Roll Call 368 on November 5, 2021. Had I been present, my vote would have been yea. Members Recorded Pursuant to House Resolution 8, 117th Congress Axne (Clark (MA)) Babin (Nehls) Baird (Mooney) Barr (McHenry) Barragan (Huffman) Bilirakis (Fleischmann) Boebert (Franklin, C. Scott) Brooks (Moore (AL)) Buchanan (Smucker) Bucshon (Banks) Cardenas (Gomez) Cawthorn (Nehls) Clarke (NY) (Kelly (IL)) Costa (Sanchez) Crawford (Stewart) Crenshaw (Ellzey) Cuellar (Veasey) Demings (Kelly (IL)) Deutch (Rice (NY)) Duncan (Rice (SC)) Frankel, Lois (Clark (MA)) Gaetz (Greene (GA)) Gibbs (Smucker) Gonzalez (OH) (Meijer) Gonzalez, Vicente (Gomez) Gosar (Greene (GA)) Green (TN) (Joyce (PA)) Hagedorn (Carl) Hartzler (Walberg) Kind (Connolly) Kinzinger (Rice (SC)) Kirkpatrick (Stanton) Krishnamoorthi (Spanberger) Lawson (FL) (Evans) Lesko (Miller (WV)) Long (McHenry) Luetkemeyer (McHenry) Maloney, Carolyn B. (Clark (MA)) McEachin (Wexton) Meeks (Kelly (IL)) Meng (Clark (MA)) Moolenaar (Bergman) Mullin (Lucas) Napolitano (Correa) Newman (Manning) Obernolte (Steel) Payne (Pallone) Pingree (Kuster) Porter (Wexton) Reed (McHenry) Rodgers (WA) (Herrera Beutler) Rush (Underwood) Sewell (Kelly (IL)) Sires (Pallone) Smith (WA) (Courtney) Speier (Scanlon) Steube (Franklin, C. Scott) Strickland (Clark (MA)) Swalwell (Gomez) Tiffany (Fitzgerald) Van Duyne (Jackson) Walorski (Banks) Waltz (Salazar) Wilson (FL) (Hayes) Wilson (SC) (Timmons) Yarmuth (Beyer)

Ms. JAYAPAL

Ms. JAYAPAL. Madam Speaker, I missed rollcall 335 on October 26, 2021. Had I been present, my vote would have been ``nay.'' Members Recorded Pursuant to House Resolution 8, 117th Congress Butterfield (Kildee) Cardenas (Gomez) DeFazio (Brown) DeSaulnier (Beyer) Doggett (Raskin) Green (TN) (Joyce (PA)) Kahele (Jacobs (CA)) Kelly (PA) (Keller) Kinzinger (Gonzalez (OH)) Kirkpatrick (Stanton) Lawson (FL) (Soto) Lieu (Beyer) Luetkemeyer (Long) Meng (Jeffries) Payne (Pallone) Porter (Wexton) Rush (Underwood) Sires (Pallone) Takano (Cicilline) Thompson (PA) (Reschenthaler) Trahan (Lynch) Watson Coleman (Pallone) Wilson (FL) (Hayes)

Ms. JAYAPAL

Ms. JAYAPAL. Madam Speaker, one in four women across America has had an abortion. I am one of them. It is a deeply personal choice about control of our own bodies and the consequences of a choice that only we will have to live with. Do not criminalize me and millions of women like me around the country. Do not criminalize those that help us. Let me be clear. The cruel Texas abortion law and decades of efforts to repeal Roe v. Wade are nothing but attempts to control our bodies and our choices. Madam Speaker, terminating my pregnancy was not an easy choice for me, but it was my choice. It is time to preserve that for all people.

Ms. JAYAPAL

Ms. JAYAPAL. Madam Speaker, I missed Roll Call 265 on September 21, 2021. Had I been present, my vote would have been Yea.

Ms. JAYAPAL

Ms. JAYAPAL. Madam Speaker, I thank Congresswoman Teresa Leger Fernandez. It has been a joy in Congress to have the gentlewoman's voice, to have her passion, and to have her advocacy. This is what makes me so proud to be the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus because of the words, the passion, and the advocacy of Representative Bowman, of Congresswoman Leger Fernandez, and of our 94 other members who are part of the Progressive Caucus. The Special Order hour that we host for this Progressive Caucus is about the issues that matter to the Congressional Progressive Caucus. Let me be very clear, progressives have been at the forefront of fighting for comprehensive immigration reform for a very long time. Our Progressive Caucus is extremely diverse. We have members who are part of the Hispanic Caucus, part of the Asian-American Caucus, and part of the Black Caucus. The reality is that we represent the diversity that is immigration today in this country. Madam Speaker, when I think about immigration, this is very personal to me for multiple reasons. I am an immigrant myself. I am one of only two dozen Members of Congress who serve in Congress who is a naturalized citizen. When I came to Congress in 2017, there were actually only six of us at that time. Then it moved to 12, and now it moved to 24. It is good that we are here and that we are representing the voice of immigrants who come from all over the world seeking refuge because that is the identity that the United States has as a place to seek refuge. I came here when I was 16 by myself. My parents just had a few thousand dollars in their bank account, and they used all of it to send me, their child, across the ocean by myself at the age of 16 because they believed that this was the place that I would have the most opportunity. But it isn't just that. It was 20 years ago that in Washington State I started what was a grass-roots effort to organize against the Bush administration at that time cracking down on immigrants, Arab Americans, Muslim Americans, and South Asian Americans and curtailing civil liberties. That was the moment that I got involved in grass-roots organizing around immigration issues and ended up starting and founding what became the largest immigrant advocacy organization in Washington State and one of the largest in the country. Madam Speaker, if John Lewis were here, he would tell you that the first thing that I said to him when I came on to the floor is: You taught me how to make good trouble. The reason is because I, too, got arrested multiple times fighting for immigration reform in civil disobedience that was about calling attention to the pain of the country when we treat immigrants with the cruelty that we have treated immigrants with both Democratic and Republican administrations through the past to today. Yes, Donald Trump did something to the immigration system that was beyond anything that had been done before. But we should be clear that much of the cruelty has existed prior to the Trump administration coming in going back to the exclusionary history of immigration law in America, but then also continuing through what was called welfare reform. That was the so-called immigration reform that actually began the criminalization of immigrants in the United States. So the work that we do here in Congress as Representatives of our communities on so many levels is incredibly important, because we get to change the conversation about what the issue is and what we need to do. We also get to change the conversation about where to put the priority for legislative fixes to the issues that we are facing. We have an opportunity coming up in the reconciliation package to do the right thing for immigrants--not just for immigrants, by the way, to do the right thing for America, because let's be very, very clear, America would not survive without the labor and the toil of immigrant communities. That is why I am so excited about the opportunity to actually advance a path to citizenship for Dreamers, TPS holders, essential workers, and farm workers in the upcoming reconciliation package. This is an opportunity for us to actually face the truth about who it was that kept the country going during the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic only underscored how our communities and our economy rely on the work of immigrants. Throughout the pandemic, immigrant workers have filled a broad swath of duties from picking and preparing the food we eat, to cleaning our homes and community spaces, to serving as front-line medical professionals and the heroic teachers who educated our kids over Zoom. We are talking about an estimated 5.2 million undocumented immigrants who were serving as essential workers, nearly 15,000 DACA recipients who have pivoted to remote learning as teachers, 1.7 million immigrants working in the food supply industry to put food on our tables, and over 200,000 undocumented immigrants working as healthcare practitioners including as registered nurses and home health aides. That is why we put as one of our top five priorities for the Congressional Progressive Caucus in the reconciliation package a roadmap to citizenship for these essential workers. One million of these undocumented essential workers are also Dreamers. Just a few weeks ago, a judge in Texas cruelly ruled against the DACA program, stopping the government from processing new applications and, once again, throwing the status of hundreds of thousands of DACA recipients back into limbo. This is not what the American people want. It was yet another urgent reminder about why we need to end the filibuster in the Senate and pass the Dream and Promise Act that we already passed multiple times in the House of Representatives. This, though, cannot wait. We cannot wait, and so it is time for us to act in this upcoming package. Further, over 7 million immigrant essential workers do have legal status, but they only have temporary status or are waiting to adjust their status. When we talk about immigrant essential workers, it is crucial that we recognize that many of them do have legal status and have been waiting--in some cases, in waiting lines projected to last over 80 years to transition--to a roadmap to citizenship. I know that when I became a citizen, Madam Speaker, it was after 17 years of being on multiple visas. By the time I became a U.S. citizen, it was impossible for me to uproot my family, my parents, and bring them to the United States to be with me. That is why they still live in India, and I live here. I have not lived on the same continent as my parents since I was 16 years old. Every day, essential immigrant workers put their own health and the health of their families at risk, showing up to work on the front lines so that we and our families could stay safe. They do all of this knowing full well that a simple traffic stop could tear them away from their families and communities, and that should they get COVID, they likely wouldn't have access to healthcare. For instance, TPS holders have been serving on the front lines, even as the former President rescinded their TPS designation and threatened to rip them away from their communities. Recognizing the tremendous contributions of immigrants, countries like France actually acted to expedite citizenship for essential immigrant workers. Not only is that the right thing to do, but it is also good for our communities and for our economy. Most of these workers have lived alongside us as friends and neighbors for over a decade. They are deeply rooted in our communities. Many have U.S. citizen children and family members, and tearing them from their homes and their families would leave gaping, irreplaceable holes in communities across the country. Moreover, if doing the humane thing isn't enough for you, and if doing the popular thing isn't good enough for you either, then look at the economic benefit. In 2019, immigrant essential workers had an estimated $860 billion in spending power, and that is after paying up to $239 billion in Federal and payroll taxes, as well as an estimated $115 billion in State and local taxes. So it is clear that immigrants are helping to sustain our communities and bolster our economies. Madam Speaker, the gentlewoman and Mr. Bowman were talking about the importance of going to the border, and I just have to recall some of the worst cruelty that I saw in the last 4 years. I was the first Member of Congress to go into a Federal prison where mothers and fathers who had been separated from their children, in many cases, babies as young as 3 months old, under the previous administration and the previous President, when they were imprisoned--these parents were imprisoned and separated from their children. When I went to see them, a couple of weeks into this crisis, and as the first Member of Congress to do so, I met with hundreds of parents, mothers and fathers who did not know where their children were. Some of them were given slips of paper that had names of children on them. But guess what? They weren't their children because DHS had lost all trace of which children belonged to which parents. What we know today is that there are still hundreds of children who are separated from their parents. Their parents have been deported, in some cases, and they will never be reunited. This was by design. This was cruelty of epic proportions perpetrated by the last President and everybody who went along with those policies. Not all Republicans did, by the way. I remember when Laura Bush spoke out against this and said this is not who America is. Well, I have a different perspective on that because we have had a lot of things happen in America that remind us that we have a bad side to America as well. But we have resilience. We have refuge. We have humanity. When that trumps, that is the best of America. The reality is, Madam Speaker, I went down to the border, as well, multiple times. In fact, I see my colleague over here. I think he called me--I forget what he called me, but I think he called me a Congresswoman coyote. No, I am not yielding to you, Mr. Gaetz. But I appreciated that because I helped children across the border as a Member of Congress. How could anybody be against that? These were children traveling alone. Had I not been there, as a Member of Congress, they wouldn't have gotten over and been able to be processed because the last administration actually closed all the ports of entry. When I went to Tijuana and met with so many of these people--I remember a 15-year-old boy who had been shot in his knee. His mother said to him to just go as quickly as he can because his brother had already been killed by gangs. Just go. Just go. Just try to get there. This was a strapping young boy, and he wept as he played me the message that his mother had left him so that he could listen to it over and over again in the shelter that he was in to get away from gangs and violence. This is what we are dealing with. That is why I have introduced the Roadmap to Freedom resolution, which lays out a positive vision of who America is, and who we should be, and who we can be if we continue to embrace those roots by which everybody came here, unless you were Native American. Either you came enslaved on ships against your will and were forced to work and your labor was taken, or you came as an immigrant in some category. The reality is, Madam Speaker, there are many things that we have to do. Thank goodness this new administration closed the Irwin Detention Center, where women were being sterilized without their consent. Thank goodness that for-profit, private detention center was closed in Georgia. We had that resolution--that was my resolution--on the floor. And do you know what? It passed with bipartisan support. Members on the other side of the aisle, as well, couldn't stomach that. We have an opportunity here to do something really tremendous in the next reconciliation package. I know firsthand that our immigration story is one of struggle and resilience. Immigrants push boulders up mountains, and we succeed because we have to. There is no other option for us. It is that strength of courage that comes out of struggle that is what defines America, defines immigrants in America. So, I look forward to doing everything I can to make sure that the Congressional Progressive Caucus continues to push for bold, progressive immigration reform and that we make sure that we get a path to citizenship for our essential workers who have been taking care of all of us through this pandemic. Madam Speaker, I thank Representative Leger Fernandez for her tremendous work, her leadership, her heart, and her passion.

Ms. JAYAPAL

Ms. JAYAPAL. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of this resolution to repeal an almost two decades-long Authorization for Use of Military Force against Iraq. Mr. Speaker, I would like to start by saying thank you, thank you, thank you to my colleague, Congresswoman Barbara Lee. I was an activist back in 2001, leading the largest immigrant advocacy organization and the largest march at the time against the war in Iraq, because we knew that what was happening was wrong. And we were looking at Congress, and saying, Congress needs to make sure they are taking action, and Barbara Lee stood up at that time on her own. The 2002 AUMF was based on a lie; a lie that has resulted in hundreds of thousands of lives lost, including civilians, U.S. servicemembers, journalists, humanitarian workers; a lie that was used as the legal basis for military hostilities beyond Iraq, hostilities that were never authorized by Congress. Mr. Speaker, this must be the beginning and not the end of our work to end endless wars. We must continue our work to forge a meaningful engagement with the rest of the world toward a lasting peace. Mr. Speaker, I also thank the chairman for his tremendous leadership.

Ms. JAYAPAL

Ms. JAYAPAL. Madam Speaker, I thank Congressman Bowman for yielding to me and also for his tremendous leadership in the Progressive Caucus. We are so proud to welcome him into the Progressive Caucus, into Congress, and to have the benefit of his tremendous experience in education, in caregiving, on so many fronts. I am so proud to cosponsor the Care resolution with the gentleman. I think it is a very important statement. Madam Speaker, I am also very proud to be here as the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. This is our Special Order hour that we get to devote to any topic that we want; and, today, it is a real privilege and an honor to devote it to the American Families Plan. Why? Because the American Families Plan and the American Jobs Plan are what this country needs and what this country wants. Democrats, Republicans, and Independents across the country have said clearly that they are ready for a big, bold investment that allows us, allows America, to build back better. That is what the President has proposed because, Madam Speaker, at the core of any society is how we care and look out for each other. That reality was made undeniably clear as we have struggled to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic, with over 600,000 deaths. And at the root of our recovery is how we look out for each other, how we give each other opportunities, how we ensure that America truly is a country where we are all better off when we are all better off. For me, coming to this country by myself at the age of 16, now getting to serve in the United States Congress as the first South Asian-American woman, I have watched how too many people across America do not have that opportunity. They do not have the investments that we, as a Federal Government, should make in order for them to be successful. Now, our care economy is broad. I am not just talking about essential healthcare providers, like nurses and doctors who cared for patients struck by COVID-19. I am talking about the broader care infrastructure, and that includes childcare. It includes home- and community-care services. And it includes providing everyone with basic paid family and medical leave and more. The American Families Plan also includes investing in healthcare for everyone across America, investing in education, the kind of education that gave me my opportunity to come here. We need to provide that 2 years of free community college or college for people across this country so that they can get the additional skills they need. We need to invest in housing and, of course, we need to invest in this broader care economy. At the end of the day, our American Families Plan, the President's American Families Plan, the jobs plan, has to be about every person across this country, working-class, poor, people who are seeking opportunity, people who deserve to have the American Dream that is no more; to make sure that every person, White, Black, and Brown, with understanding that the disproportionate burden of our inequities and racial injustices in the United States have fallen on Black, Brown, and Indigenous people, we need to make sure that all people are taken care of and have opportunity. Care infrastructure is the critical infrastructure that allows our families and communities to thrive and stay healthy. Take, for instance, the home care workers across the country who have been serving on the front lines of the pandemic. For those most vulnerable to COVID, such as people with disabilities and seniors, home care workers were often the difference between life and death. Home care workers allowed many of those most vulnerable to avoid congregate settings, like nursing and group homes, that saw a high spread of COVID. Yet, this critical workforce shrunk by 280,000 people at the beginning of the pandemic, despite an increasing need for home care services. That is why the Biden administration has proposed investing $400 billion to expand the home care workforce, something I was very proud to help negotiate last year as part of our Unity Task Force on healthcare. But we can't stop there, and the American Families Plan doesn't stop there. The American Families Plan also recognizes that the majority of caregivers, as Mr. Bowman said, are women and disproportionately women of color. Many of them are responsible for care at home, which is a huge reason why we have seen women forced out of the workforce in record numbers. In December 2020 alone, women accounted for nearly all the jobs lost, with a disproportionately high number of job losses coming from women of color. That is why we need robust investments in universal childcare. No family, regardless of income, should pay more than 7 percent of their income on childcare. And we have to eliminate administrative barriers, like work requirements, that make it much more difficult for low-income White, Black, Brown, and indigenous people to access childcare. Finally, we have to ensure strong labor standards for this care workforce. We cannot entrust people to care for the most valuable people in our lives and deny them a living wage, the right to join a union, and paid leave. These workers give our loved ones dignity. They give so many of us the ability to work outside of our homes to support our families. As we talk about domestic workers, I am so proud to have the Domestic Workers Bill of Rights that I have introduced in Congress. Let's remember that this care work is the work that allows all other work to be possible. This is an important moment for us to pass the American Families Plan to invest in education, to invest in healthcare, to lower the Medicare eligibility age, to take on prescription drugs, and to invest in this oh-so-important care economy. It is time to deliver for the American people so we continue to build back better and ensure that everyone has the support they need.

Ms. JAYAPAL

Ms. JAYAPAL. Mr. Speaker, Mahatma Gandhi, a great leader on nonviolence, said poverty is the worst form of violence. Let me be clear: We allow poverty when we take no action to eradicate it. 145 million Americans today live in poverty in the wealthiest country in the world. We allow poverty to continue when we approve bloated military spending, when structural racism is everywhere, when 55 of the largest corporations did not even pay $1 in taxes last year, when 32 million people do not even get paid $15 an hour, and 87 million Americans remain uninsured or underinsured. Poor people in this country are suffering, without the food they need to eat, without the wages they deserve, without the dignity they have a right to. We, in Congress, have the power to end poverty. We must act immediately with resolve, moral clarity, and with complete attention to the lives of poor people who demand to be seen and respected with our actions. That is why I am so proud to co-introduce with Representative Barbara Lee this bold and necessary resolution that commits Congress to eradicating poverty from the bottom up. Mr. Speaker, today, we say to poor people everywhere, we see you, and we will eradicate poverty in our country with you.

Ms. JAYAPAL

Ms. JAYAPAL. Madam Speaker, we are here today for Soon Chung Park, Suncha Kim, Yong Ae Yue, Hyun Jung Grant, Xiaojie Tan, Daoyou Feng, Amarjeet Kaur Johal, Jasvinder Kaur, Jaswinder Singh, Amarjit Sekhon, and too many others. This bill is an important step to address and prevent hate crimes as we deal with the root causes of hate and violence. That means providing basic economic security, including housing, social services, education, and healthcare. A ``yes'' vote says that we won't stand by as our children are bullied on playgrounds and our elders are beaten in the streets. A ``yes'' vote says to Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders-- Chinese, Korean, Indian, Vietnamese, Thai, Pakistani, Japanese, Filipino, Native Hawaiian, Laotian, Hmong, Cambodian, Burmese, Bangladeshi, Bhutanese, Indonesian, Tibetan, Sri Lankan, Tongan, Malaysian, Mongolian, Taiwanese, Fijian, Singaporean, Chamorro, Nepalese, Samoan, Bruneian, Afghani, Micronesian, and Marshallese--that we are visible and that we matter. We, too, are America.

Ms. JAYAPAL

Ms. JAYAPAL. Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman so much for his tremendous leadership on helping to bring this bill to the floor. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of my bill, the Access to Counsel Act. It is the Access to Counsel Act. I don't know if my friends on the other side have heard that. I am not sure how access to counsel helps empower cartels. I am not sure if my colleagues on the other side have read the bill. This does not fund counsel, and it actually doesn't give a right to counsel. We could debate that in another bill. This gives access to counsel. It brings us one step closer to upholding our country's principles of due process and fairness by ensuring that individuals with lawful status have the right to call a lawyer and receive assistance if they are detained at ports of entry or in airports. So why did this bill come about? The Access to Counsel Act was the very first bill I introduced as a Member of Congress in 2017 in response to President Donald Trump's Muslim ban. On the day that Donald Trump announced that ban, I rushed to my local airport in Seattle. What I encountered and what we saw at airports across the Nation was a sham of our democracy. People from seven Muslim-majority countries--all with legal access to be in the United States--suddenly found themselves held for upwards of 30 hours, deported, and in some cases pressured to sign papers giving up their legal status without even the ability to call an attorney or a family member. I then reintroduced, again, the Access to Counsel Act in my second term, in January of 2020, after Customs and Border Protection targeted Iranian Americans at ports of entry. As many as 200 Iranian Americans were held in secondary screening in Blaine, Washington. Negah Hekmati and her two children were detained for nearly 6 hours despite being U.S. citizens and despite having preclearance for expedited processing at the border that is specifically for approved, low-risk travelers. She recalls her small children begging her not to speak Farsi in fear of being detained. At such a young age, her children, U.S. citizens, already recognized that they were being profiled and unjustly held because of their heritage. Of course, when we raised this in the moment, Border Patrol said: That is not happening. We can't do that. We wouldn't do that. We are not doing that. Well, it took over a year and suing the government in order to access documents from Customs and Border Protection for us to find out that the total number of people held was 227 people. Half of those people were U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents, half of the 227. The rest of them had legal paperwork to come into the country. So, why were they held? They were held because of their Iranian heritage or ties to the Middle East. Later, we also found out that there was no attempt from Border Patrol to figure out why they were there, whether they should be there, or to even comply with the law that says that your country of origin cannot be the sole purpose that you are held. If Republicans want to talk about wasting Border Patrol resources, let's talk about the fact that 227 people, half of whom were U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents and the rest with valid visas, were held in a Border Patrol station in Blaine, Washington, for almost 12 hours and unable to leave. That is called detention. You have now turned the Border Patrol stations into detention facilities. That is not what we are supposed to do. Why is it so difficult to say: Yes, a phone call is permissible. That is what this bill is trying to do. Throughout the last administration, we saw dozens of Iranian students with valid visas having their visas revoked or being deported upon arrival to the United States simply because of their country of origin. The Access to Counsel Act would ensure that people who have already been vetted and granted lawful status have a meaningful opportunity to call an attorney, have a meaningful opportunity to call a relative or other interested party, like a Member of Congress, when they get held for more than an hour in secondary inspection. This is a commonsense measure, Mr. Speaker, to make sure that our Nation treats those who are arriving to our country, whether it is green card holders who have made their home here in the United States; visa holders working, studying, or traveling to the United States; or U.S. citizens who happen to have been identified with a different country of origin for some reason, let's make sure we treat everybody with dignity and respect. I am so proud to be passing the Access to Counsel Act today, alongside the No BAN Act, to put an end to some of the most cruel and discriminatory policies adopted by the previous administration and to make sure that they never happen again.

Ms. JAYAPAL

Ms. JAYAPAL. Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of the NO BAN Act, and I thank Congresswoman Chu for her leadership. Yes, let's get back to protecting America. That is what we want to do. Madam Speaker, Anahita is an asylee from Iran. The last time she spoke to her father, he told her that, when she returned home, he would sit with her on the terrace and talk politics. That never happened. Due to Trump's Muslim ban, Anahita could not get travel documents to see her dad before he died or to mourn with her family. Madam Speaker, for 4 years, families remained separated. That is not the America we want to protect. American businesses and universities couldn't recruit top candidates, and our Nation's doors were closed to people seeking refuge. President Biden rescinded the bans, but we must pass the NO BAN Act to prohibit any future President from issuing discriminatory bans. Now, that day, I was in my first month here in Congress, when the Muslim ban was passed. I rushed to the airport, along with our chairman and many other Members of Congress. We worked with attorneys to file the national lawsuits that called for an emergency petition that blocked the President's order from taking effect. We were also able, at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, to go onto the tarmac and stop a plane from taking off because of an emergency habeas from a judge there that allowed us to get two people back in who should have been here in the first place. Madam Speaker, just imagine the hearts and souls of people whose lives were thrown into chaos, thinking that they were going to land in the United States with valid travel documents and then were turned away by a President who issued a Muslim ban. The reason we need this bill is to make sure that that can never happen again. Madam Speaker, yes, we want to protect America's values. We believe that the way to do that is to pass the NO BAN Act.

Ms. JAYAPAL

Ms. JAYAPAL. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of the American Dream and Promise Act. As an immigrant myself who came to America alone at the age of 16 and who spent a decade in the immigrant rights movement before coming to Congress, I stand with the Dreamers and TPS and DED recipients who have courageously proclaimed ``undocumented and unafraid'' in the streets and Halls of Congress and built this movement for justice. These Dreamers, TPS, and DED holders have lived in the shadows for too long, doing our Nation's essential work while living a life of uncertainty and fear every day. Mr. Speaker, Congress--we--right here and right now can change that. We can stand up for our 4.4 million essential community members who have made the United States home. We can legislate what they deserve, which is a roadmap to citizenship and a future of hope, opportunity, and contribution. Let's stop the hypocrisy of criminalizing immigrants. Let's give recognition and hope today. Vote ``aye'' on the American Dream and Promise Act.

Ms. JAYAPAL

Ms. JAYAPAL. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 8, the Bipartisan Background Checks Act. This bill is among the most commonsense gun violence prevention reforms, requiring background checks for unlicensed sellers. Mr. Speaker, this is not complicated. This is simple. Under H.R. 8, people who wish to transfer a firearm would have to visit a licensed firearm dealer to run a background check before the transfer could be finalized. Most of these checks take 90 seconds, 90 seconds to prevent firearms from ending up in the wrong hands, 90 seconds to prevent more of our loved ones from being killed by gun violence. I am proud to be from Washington State, where voters have consistently tackled gun violence with commonsense reforms, passing one of the first, most comprehensive background check laws in 2014 and raising the legal age to purchase a semiautomatic rifle to 21 in 2018. Mr. Speaker, let's do this. To save lives, vote ``aye.''

Ms. JAYAPAL

Ms. JAYAPAL. Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of the PRO Act. I am very proud to be a lead sponsor of this transformative bill and to represent one of the most unionized States in the country, where I have spent two decades organizing alongside unions for decent wages, benefits, and workers' rights. Unions helped build America's middle class. But over the years large corporations have deployed union-busting tactics to rob workers of their fundamental workplace rights. That changes today. The PRO Act will undo decades of Republican antiworker policies. It puts power back into the hands of workers and secures the right to organize and bargain for good wages, fair benefits, and an equal voice on the job. The PRO Act is about democracy in the workplace. It is about standing with the heroic workers carrying America through the pandemic. It is past time to pass the PRO Act. Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record two letters of support from the Service Employees International Union and the Communications Workers of America.

Ms. JAYAPAL

Ms. JAYAPAL. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to strongly support the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act and to say Black Lives Matter. I rise for Charleena Lyles, Che Taylor, Manuel Ellis, Tommy Le, Tony McDade, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Eric Garner, Atatiana Jefferson, Ezell Ford, Tanisha Anderson, Tamir Rice, Walter Scott, Philando Castile, Gabriella Nevarez, Botham Jean. I rise for all of our Black siblings who have been killed by law enforcement, because there are far too many to say all of their names. I rise for the Black Lives Matter protestors who were met with aggression, tear gas, and force while White domestic terrorists were met with none of these things. I rise to answer the call of millions of people led by Black voices who have taken to the streets demanding transformative change. I rise because that change begins today by once again passing the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act.

Ms. JAYAPAL

Ms. JAYAPAL. Mr. Speaker, I rise in memory of the 500,000 lives lost from COVID. I rise for the 24 million Americans going hungry, 40 million Americans struggling to stay in their homes, and more than 8 million families who have been pushed into poverty. I rise to support survival checks that put money in the pockets of tens of millions of poor and working people so that they can withstand this devastating crisis. I rise to support childcare providers and housing assistance, small business relief, unemployment assistance, and tax credits for children so families can have hope again. I rise to support a pay raise to $15 an hour for 27 million workers across this country who so desperately need our help, lifting 1 million people out of poverty and strengthening all of our communities. Tonight I vote ``yes'' on this American rescue package. America, know that help is on the way. We are with you, and we will get through this together.

Ms. JAYAPAL

Ms. JAYAPAL. We say to every LGBTQ person: We see you. We hear you.

Ms. JAYAPAL. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of the Equality Act. I am the proud mom of a trans kid. I will fight every single day for every trans person, every LGBTQ person, including my kid, to explore and express the fullness of their gender without fear or risk of being fired, denied housing, or refused service because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. Mr. Speaker, in 2020, over one in three LGBTQ Americans faced discrimination, including over three in five transgender Americans. In the midst of a pandemic, nearly 3 in 10 LGBTQ Americans faced difficulties accessing medical care, including over half of transgender Americans. The Equality Act guarantees protection under the law, no matter who you love or your gender identity. It was President Abraham Lincoln who said those who deny freedom for others deserve it not for themselves. So today, as we pass the Equality Act, we vote ``aye'' for Janak, for Evie, for so many thousands more of our kids.

Ms. JAYAPAL

Ms. JAYAPAL. Madam Speaker, just over a year ago, I stood on the House floor as we did our jobs and voted to impeach the President of the United States. The facts were clear then: Donald Trump abused the power of the Office of the Presidency to pursue his own personal, political gain. My vote was a vote for the Constitution and for `We, the People' because America is so deeply worth it. Six months later, we saw Donald Trump's radically disparate treatment of a violent mob taking over the Michigan state capitol while threatening to lynch a governor and the harsh crackdown on Black, Indigenous, and people of color demonstrating for civil and human rights in the wake of yet another Black person being murdered by law enforcement. On the one hand, we saw armed white men with swastikas and Confederate flags threatening lawmakers, damaging the statehouse, and seeking to lynch, shoot, and behead the Governor of Michigan with no federal response. In fact, Attorney General Bill Barr told me under oath that he wasn't even aware it occurred. In sharp contrast, we saw Black people and people of color forcibly removed by armed federal officials using pepper bombs and tear gas. This time, the Attorney General was on the scene himself. All of these events brought us to January 6, 2021. On that day, I was trapped in the House gallery for nearly two hours as a mob of insurrectionists launched a deadly attack on our Capitol, our country, and our democracy. My colleagues and I took cover as domestic terrorists waved the confederate flag in the People's House; as the temple of our democracy was ransacked in the most deadly and destructive assault on the U.S. Capitol since the War of 1812. The events of January 6 were horrific. We know now that January 6 could have ended in even more violence, harm, and loss of life. We know the mob came ready for combat with nooses, zip ties, bats, bulletproof vests, and pipes. We know they came within seconds of breaching the United States Senate and ran around the inside of this building chanting ``Hang Mike Pence'' and looking for our Speaker, Nancy Pelosi. And we know that they had placed bombs at the Capitol, the Democratic National Committee, and the Republican National Committee. Why did they do all of this? Because for months, the man who sits in the White House has refused to accept the will of the American people; has refused to recognize that he lost a free and fair election-- decisively. And then he--and some Republican members of this Congress-- called on his followers to ``be wild.'' They told them to ``stand by.'' Then, they told them to ``fight like hell.'' Next, they proclaimed ``we are going to the Capitol.'' The insurrectionists followed those orders from the President of the United States. They went to the Capitol and fought like hell. They tried to subvert our democracy, but they failed. Donald Trump is the smoking gun. That gun is reloaded and whether or not it goes off once more is up to us. We must send a clear message to the President that the United States Congress will not stand by and allow one man to turn our democracy into an autocracy; will not stand by while that man incites insurrectionists to launch a deadly assault on the United States Capitol. I call on my colleagues to join me in voting to immediately impeach, convict, and remove Donald J. Trump from office; to ensure he can never run for elected office again; to fight for justice; to send a signal to those across America and throughout the world who--incited and fueled by this president--want to do us further harm; and to hold him fully accountable for this attack on Congress, the United States of America, and our democracy.

Ms. JAYAPAL

Ms. JAYAPAL. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor the memory of longtime Seattle resident Tony Lee, who died on November 12, 2020. Over his more than 30-year career, Tony had a deep and personal impact on our community. He leaves behind a tremendous legacy of dedicated public service. Tony Lee was a kind-hearted friend, activist and advocate, and a devoted family member. He was humble and wise. Those of us lucky enough to have known him will forever remember his booming, infectious laugh. Tony joined the Seattle community at a young age, when he immigrated to the United States from China via Brazil with his family. He went on to graduate from Harvard and earn a law degree from the University of Washington. Upon starting his career as a lawyer, Tony quickly found his true calling: civil rights advocacy. Tony began his career as an attorney for Evergreen Legal Services, representing the needs of indigent clients as well as immigrants and refugees. He later served as the Advocacy Director for Solid Ground, where he led the anti-poverty, anti-racist organization's work to save cash assistance programs for people with disabilities and mental illness, expand Medicaid to cover dental care, and overcome housing discrimination in Washington State over 21 years. He is widely recognized for his leadership in creating and maintaining critical safety net services for immigrant and refugee communities, making Washington State a shining example for immigrant inclusion nationwide. Tony's advocacy and activism stretched well beyond his formal work positions, putting him frequently at the forefront of important efforts and movements. Among these, Tony fought for rent control, on peace and social justice issues and for economic justice. He helped found the Statewide Poverty Action Network and create the Food Assistance Program, which promotes expanding public benefits and broadening the safety net for low-income people in Washington State. He served as a leader with the Equity in Education Commission, the King County Chapter of the Asian Pacific Islander Coalition, Seattle Human Services Coalition, Church Council of Greater Seattle, the Washington Association of Churches, and the Catholic Archdiocese. Even after his semi-retirement in 2014, Tony could still be found advocating in the halls of the Washington State Legislature, where he was, in the words of Representative Frank Chopp, the ``conscience of Washington State.'' I had the pleasure of working with Tony over the more than decade I spent organizing for immigrant rights, doing lobby days in the state capitol, advocating for poor people and the most vulnerable and fighting for immigrants and refugees, and there was simply no-one who knew the subject matter better or was more devoted than Tony Lee. Tony will be dearly missed, and his tremendous legacy promoting a more just and kind Seattle will continue to grow through the communities and lives he touched. He is survived by his wife, Angela Bartels; former wife, Sharon Lee; his son, Chris; siblings Bernadette, Cecilia, Joe, Marie, and Mary; and many nieces and nephews. For his years of dedicated and compassionate service. I am proud to express my deep appreciation for Tony Lee and his advocacy for the most vulnerable members of our community. My heart is with his loved ones during this difficult time. May he rest in power.

Ms. JAYAPAL

Ms. JAYAPAL. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 1164, I call up the resolution (H. Res. 1153) condemning unwanted, unnecessary medical procedures on individuals without their full, informed consent, and ask for its immediate consideration.

Ms. JAYAPAL. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and insert extraneous material on H. Res. 1154.

Ms. JAYAPAL. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, imagine this: You are an immigrant woman detained in a detention center. Perhaps you have been asking for help for months about a painful medical condition or perhaps you have had no medical complaints at all. You are suddenly woken up early in the morning. You are put in shackles and taken not to a general practitioner, but to a gynecologist. That gynecologist performs ultrasounds, inserts tools, even his own hands into your body without any consent or any lubrication. You are in pain. You do not know what is being done to you. You feel violently sexually assaulted. The doctor tells you that you have a major problem, cysts that must be operated on, from that simple examination he did. You don't want surgery and you even say so. He says: Okay, I will give you a shot instead. And because you are scared, you take the shot, but you don't know what it is. You haven't been told what it is. You certainly have no idea that, in fact, this is a shot that is an injectable contraceptive that temporarily prevents you from having children and can have other serious side effects, including bleeding. Now you are bleeding. You are scared, and you don't know what is happening. You go back to see the gynecologist, and he tells you this is why he said you must have surgery. You have doubts. You want a second opinion. But you are told you cannot have a second opinion, and it is either this or you will never get any care again--after all, you are in detention. You finally, perhaps in some cases, agree to the surgery thinking that you are just having cysts removed, but you wake up and you find out that you have had a full or partial hysterectomy, one of your fallopian tubes has been removed or perhaps some other surgery that you weren't expecting. Imagine that someone has just taken away or severely compromised your ability to have children without ever telling you or asking your consent for what they are doing. Mr. Speaker, that is why we are here today, to vote on House Resolution 1153, to condemn unwanted, unnecessary medical procedures conducted on women without their full, informed consent, to ensure the safety, health, and presence of the women at the Irwin County Detention Center, and to mandate full compliance of ICE with the requirements of the ongoing investigation. The story I just described is just one of the many stories we have now heard from women who are either currently or were formerly detained at the Irwin County Detention Center in Ocilla, Georgia. Please understand that 90 percent of the people detained at this facility are completely unrepresented by any attorney. Moreover, like all detention facilities, Irwin has been plagued with COVID. People detained here report not receiving adequate PPE, and there have been multiple cases of COVID. Since this horrific story emerged through a whistleblower report 2 weeks ago, a few attorneys who are representing some of the women have brought forward more stories. Independent gynecologists have reviewed the available medical records. The New York Times launched an independent investigation, asking independent gynecologists to review the records of seven women who were able to obtain their medical files. What they found is deeply disturbing. The doctors noted that the gynecologist ``seemed to consistently recommended surgical intervention, even when it did not seem medically necessary at the time and nonsurgical treatment options were available.'' Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record a September 29 New York Times article, titled: ``Immigrants Say They Were Pressured Into Unneeded Surgeries.'' [From the New York Times, Sept. 29, 2020] Immigrants Say They Were Pressured Into Unneeded Surgeries Immigrants detained at an ICE-contracted center in Georgia said they had invasive gynecology procedures that they later learned might have been unnecessary (By Caitlin Dickerson, Seth Freed Wessler and Miriam Jordan) Wendy Dowe was startled awake early one morning in January 2019, when guards called her out of her cellblock in the Irwin County immigration detention center in rural Georgia, where she had been held for four months. She would be having surgery that day, they said. Still groggy, the 48-year-old immigrant from Jamaica, who had been living without legal status in the United States for two decades before she was picked up by immigration authorities, felt a swell of dread come over her. An outside gynecologist who saw patients in immigration custody told her that the menstrual cramping she had was caused by large cysts and masses that needed to be removed, but she was skeptical. The doctor insisted, she said, and as a detainee--brought to the hospital in handcuffs and shackles--she felt pressured to consent. It was only after she was deported to Jamaica and had her medical files reviewed by several other doctors that she knew she had been right to raise questions. A radiologist's report, based on images of her internal organs from her time at Irwin, described her uterus as being a healthy size, not swollen with enlarged masses and cysts, as the doctor had written in his notes. The cysts she had were small, and the kind that occur naturally and do not usually require surgical intervention. ``I didn't have to do any of it,'' Ms. Dowe said. The Irwin County Detention Center in Ocilla, Ga., drew national attention this month after a nurse, Dawn Wooten, filed a whistle-blower complaint claiming that detainees had told her they had had their uteruses removed without their full understanding or consent. Since then, both ICE and the hospital in Irwin County have released data that show that two full hysterectomies have been performed on women detained at Irwin in the past three years. But firsthand accounts are now emerging from detainees, including Ms. Dowe, who underwent other invasive gynecological procedures that they did not fully understand and, in some cases, may not have been medically necessary. At least one lawyer brought the complaints about gynecological care to the attention of the center's top officials in 2018, according to emails obtained by The New York Times, but the outside referrals continued. The Times interviewed 16 women who were concerned about the gynecological care they received while at the center, and conducted a detailed review of the medical files of seven women who were able to obtain their records. All 16 were treated by Dr. Mahendra Amin, who practices gynecology in the nearby town of Douglas and has been described by ICE officials as the detention center's ``primary gynecologist.'' The cases were reviewed by five gynecologists--four of them board-certified and all with medical school affiliations--who found that Dr. Amin consistently overstated the size or risks associated with cysts or masses attached to his patients' reproductive organs. Small or benign cysts do not typically call for surgical intervention, where large or otherwise troubling ones sometimes do, the experts said. The doctors stressed that in some cases the medical files might not have been complete and that additional information could potentially shift their analyses. But they noted that Dr. Amin seemed to consistently recommend surgical intervention, even when it did not seem medically necessary at the time and nonsurgical treatment options were available. In almost every woman's chart, Dr. Amin listed symptoms such as heavy bleeding with clots and chronic pelvic pain, which could justify surgery. But some of the women said they never experienced or reported those symptoms to him. Both the reviewing doctors and all of the women interviewed by The Times raised concerns about whether Dr. Amin had adequately explained the procedures he performed or provided his patients with less invasive alternatives. Spanish- speaking women said a nurse who spoke Spanish was only sporadically present during their exams. The diagnoses and procedures are ``poorly supported'' and ``not well documented,'' said Dr. Sara Imershein, a clinical professor at George Washington University and the Washington, DC, chair of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Even if the patients had reported the symptoms recorded by Dr. Amin, ``there would have been many avenues to pursue before rushing to surgery,'' she said. ``Advil for one.'' ``He is overly aggressive in his treatment and does not explore appropriate medical management before turning to procedures or surgical intervention,'' said Dr. Deborah Ottenheimer, a forensic evaluator and instructor at the Weill Cornell Medical School Human Rights Clinic. But the doctors who reviewed the cases noted that aggressive overtreatment is all too common among doctors-- especially with patients who do not have the resources to seek a second opinion. Dr. Ada Rivera, medical director of the ICE Health Service Corps, said in a statement that the whistle-blower's allegations ``raise some very serious concerns that deserve to be investigated quickly and thoroughly.'' She added, ``If there is any truth to these allegations, it is my commitment to make the corrections necessary to ensure we continue to prioritize the health, welfare and safety of ICE detainees.'' Dr. Amin's lawyer, Scott Grubman, said in a statement that the physician ``strongly disputes any allegations that he treated any patient with anything other than the utmost care and respect.'' ``Dr. Amin also strongly disputes that any patient was treated without full informed consent,'' the statement continued. Mr. Grubman said that patient privacy laws prevented him from discussing any specific patient's treatment, but in each case it ``was medically necessary, performed within the standard of care, and done only after obtaining full informed consent.'' The statement added that Dr. Amin always uses an interpreter when treating patients who do not speak English and ``always attempts to treat his patients with more conservative treatment, including medicine and less invasive procedures, before even recommending surgery,'' which he views as a last resort. Independent doctors that provide treatment for ICE detainees are paid for the procedures they perform with Department of Homeland Security funds. Procedures like the ones that Dr. Amin performed are normally billed at thousands of dollars each. Dr. Amin's billings had previously come to the attention of federal authorities. In 2013, the Justice Department named him in a civil case alleging that he and several other doctors had overbilled Medicare and Medicaid by, among other things, performing unnecessary procedures on terminal patients and leaving the emergency room staffed by nurses while billing for diagnoses and treatments as if they had been performed by doctors. The case was settled for $520,000 with no admission of fault on the part of the defendants. `I could not ask any questions' In many cases, Dr. Amin's patients said they were confused about why they ended up being sent to his office in the first place--some after raising medical issues that had nothing to do with gynecology. Yuridia, a 36-year-old immigrant from Mexico, sought out a nurse at the center soon after she arrived because she was having pain in her rib after a fight with her abusive ex- partner just before she was picked up by ICE. She asked to be identified by her first name because she feared for her safety. She was sent for a medical exam at Dr. Amin's office, where she said he began to prepare an ultrasound machine. ``I was assuming they were going to check my rib,'' she said. ``The next thing I know, he's doing a vaginal exam.'' Dr. Amin recorded in his notes that Yuridia had cysts in her ovaries and scheduled a surgery to remove them. He also wrote that she had complained of heavy menstruation and pelvic pain. She said that she never experienced or reported those conditions and that she had not asked to see a gynecologist. Weeks later, she underwent surgery. Pathology reports show that she did not have dangerous cysts, but small ones of the kind that occur naturally in most women and do not call for surgical intervention. Yuridia said she had expected only a minor procedure that would be performed vaginally, but she was surprised when she woke up to find three incisions on her abdomen and a piece of skin missing from her genital area. ``I woke up and I was alone, and I was in pain and everyone spoke English so I could not ask any questions,'' Yuridia said. Three days later, still sore and recovering, she was deported. Yuridia's case bears striking similarities to others that the panel of doctors reviewed. Many of them led to two surgical procedures performed simultaneously: ``dilation and curettage,'' often referred to as a ``D & C,'' which involves inserting tools into a woman's vagina and scraping tissue from the uterus, and laparoscopy, in which three incisions are made to insert a camera into the abdominal cavity to examine or perform procedures on the reproductive organs. The cases suggest a pattern of ``excessively aggressive surgical intervention without adequate trial of medical remedies,'' Dr. Ottenheimer said. A report reveals longstanding complaints It was the Irwin County center's handling of the coronavirus pandemic that inspired Ms. Wooten, the nurse whose whistle-blower complaint was first reported by The Intercept, to come forward about another issue that troubled her: Dr. Amin's surgeries. She said in an interview that she had for years noticed that an inordinate number of women were being referred to Dr. Amin. She said she would hear reports that they had undergone surgeries but that they had no idea why the surgeries were performed. ``After they get up from general anesthesia,'' Ms. Wooten said, the women would ask, ``Why'd I have this surgery?'' ``And I don't have an answer for why,'' she said. ``I am just as shocked as they are. Nobody explained it to them.'' Data from ICE inspection reports show that the center, which is operated by a private prison company, Lasalle Corrections, refers more than 1,000 detainees a year for outside medical care, far more than most other immigration detention centers of the same size. It is not clear how many of these referrals are for gynecological care. Lasalle Corrections did not respond to requests for comment. Concerns from women detained at Irwin emerged long before Ms. Wooten came forward. Ms. Dowe, after being told by Dr. Amin that she had a mass the size of a ``cantaloupe'' on her uterus, had reached out in early 2019 to Donald Anthonyson, an immigrant advocate she had met through a fellow detainee. She was asking for help, Mr. Anthonyson said. ``She expressed real concerns about going to that doctor,'' he said. ``She was concerned about what was happening to her and what she was hearing from other women.'' Unlike some of the women who had no gynecological complaints, Ms. Dowe was experiencing intense menstrual cramping, which the doctors who reviewed her case said could sometimes justify the procedure she underwent--but only if the patient understands the options and elects to move forward. Even then, the doctors raised questions about several seemingly healthy and naturally occurring cysts that Dr. Amin might have removed unnecessarily while he was operating on her. After the procedure, Dr. Amin wrote in his notes that Ms. Dowe requested a second surgery--a full abdominal hysterectomy and removal of her ovaries. But Ms. Dowe insists she never made any such request. A note in her medical records from the detention center appears to corroborate her denial. ``Detainee is requesting a second opinion to have a hysterectomy,'' it reads, ``OB/GYN scheduled hysterectomy and patient refused.'' Complaints about Dr. Amin had also been raised with senior officials long before Ms. Dowe's case. In November 2018, a woman named Nancy Gonzalez Hidalgo was left shaken after several visits with the physician, during which she said he performed rough vaginal ultrasounds and ignored her when she cried out in pain. Ms. Gonzalez Hidalgo's lawyers sent an email to the warden of the center, David Paulk. In the email, Erin Argueta, a lawyer at the Southern Poverty Law Center, explained that Ms. Gonzalez Hidalgo's health was worsening because of complications she was experiencing from an earlier miscarriage. ``Nancy hesitated to seek medical attention because her last experience with Dr. Amin was so painful and traumatic that she did not want to be sent back to him,'' Ms. Argueta wrote. She referred in her email to several previous verbal complaints about Dr. Amin that lawyers had taken to the center's inmates services director, Marteka George. ``Ms. George stated that this was not the first time someone complained about Dr. Amin, and she said that she would look into whether Nancy could see a different provider,'' the lawyer wrote. The warden responded twice, stating on Nov. 30 that Ms. Gonzalez Hidalgo had been scheduled for an appointment with an outside provider ``that is unassociated with Dr. Amin.'' The other doctor, Warden Paulk said, was ``reportedly well thought of by his patients.'' Warden Paulk did not respond to requests for comment. Other women who questioned Dr. Amin's care in the past said they had also faced challenges when they tried to seek answers. On the morning of Aug. 14, Mileidy Cardentey Fernandez said, there was no interpreter present at the Irwin County Hospital when she was presented with consent forms in English to sign for a procedure she was undergoing that day. She asked the technician, ``Spanish, please? Little English.'' The woman urged her to sign the forms--and so she did. Afterward, she said, she filled out a form on numerous occasions at the detention center requesting her medical records but got no response. ``I wanted to know everything they had done,'' she said. ``I made requests for the biopsy, analyses, and they don't want to give them to me. They said they don't have the results. How can they not have the results?'' When she was released from detention on Sept. 21, she called her daughter in Virginia and then headed straight to Dr. Amin's clinic with her lawyer to demand her records, which she received. Some women said they had managed to avoid surgeries by Dr. Amin but not without facing resistance.

Ms. JAYAPAL. Mr. Speaker, this is about full or partial sterilization and a total lack of consent from the patient. And let's be very clear: Even if a procedure or test is medically necessary, a doctor must have informed consent from their patient. This is the most basic tenet of medical ethics. Last weekend, 10 Members of Congress visited the detention center and we spoke directly to the women. We saw their pain and shock and horror about the irreparable damage that has been done to them and their futures. I have here letters from dozens of women at the center detailing some of these things that they have seen and experienced, including these unnecessary medical procedures. To bring their voices directly into this Chamber, let me read from one of them. A woman married to a U.S. citizen and with children of her own: My experience here has been full of fear and terror. It began when I asked for medication for my abdomen. My surprise when I was taken to the gynecologist, he didn't explain nothing and just told me to lay down and inserted something and said I had a cyst the size of a nail. I was injected and didn't say for what, and said the results would be here in 3 weeks; if not, I would come back. When everything that's been happening has come to light, I was never taken back thanks to God because, if not, I would have had surgery. This resolution is simple. It mandates that a real investigation must happen. Even just this morning we had to once again ensure that a woman who had this surgery done to her was not once again arrested. We need to allow these women to heal as we get this investigation done in the speediest of manners. Passing this resolution also sends a clear message to doctors contracted by the private for-profit incarceration facilities everywhere: We will not stand by and allow you to treat people this way. We will not stand by and allow history to repeat itself, a shameful history of medical abuse targeting Black people, indigenous people, people of color, immigrants, poor people, and people with disabilities for medical procedures without consent. To the women at Irwin, those lucky enough to have been released and those who have already been deported: You are brave and resilient. You should know that the United States Congress, with the passage of this resolution, is saying to you: We see you; we hear you; and we will not stop fighting for you. I thank my colleagues and coleads of this resolution, Representatives Annie Kuster, Sheila Jackson Lee, Sylvia Garcia, and Lois Frankel, for introducing this resolution with me that now has the support of 225 Members of Congress and, also, the Women's Caucus for their tremendous attention to this resolution, as well as the Congressional Hispanic Caucus that helped lead the codel with the Judiciary Committee. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on this resolution, and I reserve the balance of my time.