Durbin Asks Witnesses About Developmental Impact Of Immigration Detention On Children During Spotlight Forum On MAGA Mass Deportation Agenda

Durbin Asks Witnesses About Developmental Impact Of Immigration Detention On Children During Spotlight Forum On MAGA Mass Deportation Agenda

Durbin: "There's a lot to be sad about in this country. There's a lot to be hopeful about too…[What] All of you have done, coming forward today to tell the story, is a reminder to the rest of the country that there's real, genuine goodness and a feeling of fairness and justice that motivates us as Americans."

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, today questioned witnesses at his spotlight forum entitled "The Kids Are Not Alright: How Mass Deportation is Traumatizing Children." Today's forum, which featured testimony from Chicago residents, examined how the Trump Administration's anti-immigrant campaign has terrorized both immigrant and U.S. citizen children and is leaving lasting emotional scars on innocent kids.

Durbin first offered Samia, a high school student from Minnesota and a Somali American, the opportunity to respond to President Trump's racist comments toward Somalis.

"I want to join Senator Blumenthal in telling you how painful it was to hear the President of the United States refer to you and your people as 'garbage'…I was sitting in the Oval Office in his [President Trump's] first term, the only Democrat in a group of about 20 members of Congress. I heard the President say… 'shithole' nations. I couldn't believe it for a moment to think that a President of the United States would use that kind of language in the highest office of our land. He did, repeatedly, and denied it until just a few months ago when he admitted publicly that he did say it," Durbin said.

"Can you tell me what the reaction was in your community?" Durbin asked Samia.

Samia spoke to the resilience of the Somali community, many of whom came to the U.S. to escape war, and how the comments made by the President led Somali Americans to advocate for immigrant communities before state legislatures and Congress.

Durbin then asked Dr. Lisa Fortuna, a clinical psychologist and a Professor and Chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Neurosciences at the University of California Riverside, School of Medicine, about the long-term impacts on children who have witnessed the Trump Administration's mass deportation scheme.

"Dr. Fortuna, what do you make of these children as they grow up with this life experience, hoping for the best that they physically survive? Mentally, what do they face?" Durbin asked.

Dr. Fortuna explained that while communities are trying to protect their children from the atrocities of this deportation campaign, chronic exposure to dehumanizing policing tactics and rhetoric can lead to trauma, depression, or psychiatric disorders in children. Further, these policies, which promote racist ideologies against immigrant communities, disrupt children's identity formation and damage their sense of self.

Durbin continued, asking Elora Mukherjee, Director of the Immigrants' Rights Clinic at Columbia Law School, about what safeguards can be implemented to protect immigrants' rights and wellbeing during detention.

"Where are the safeguards, the recourse? It won't be a habeas petition. That takes so long and has so many steps. What can we put into these facilities to provide the most basic protection of those who are detained, particularly the children?" Durbin asked.

Professor Mukherjee emphasized that detention is never appropriate for children and noted that there are more humane and more cost effective alternatives to detention.

Video of Durbin's questions are available here.

Audio of Durbin's questions are available here.

Durbin concluded the spotlight forum by reflecting on Chicago and Minneapolis' responses to the surge of immigration enforcement activity. Durbin commended the peaceful protestors who spoke out against Operation Midway Blitz and Operation Metro Surge and commended the cities' communities for coming forward to support their immigrant neighbors. Durbin recognized Lia, a witness at today's forum and a high school student who led a walk out at her high school in protest of Operation Midway Blitz.

"Lia, I still remember going to your high school. I remembered you and the fact that you said, 'We're going to do something to protest this.' You led the procession," Durbin said.

Lia spoke about arranging the walk out, noting that she was inspired to organize it after her friends' family was targeted by ICE agents.

"My friend, like I mentioned in my testimony, her cousin and her uncle got targeted by ICE agents. An agent even put his knee on her cousin's neck while he yelled that he was a citizen. I remember seeing so many students, classmates of mine, gone for weeks and weeks on end because they were scared… I was just so sick and tired of living in constant fear. As a citizen, I took a passport [to school] every day just because I was scared that because I look Mexican, they might stop me and they might take me," Lia said. "I asked my friend, 'If I walk out, will you walk out with me?' She said yes. In less than a week, we got more than 500 students to come attend, 89 community members, and 50 businesses to come support us."

Durbin concluded, "There's a lot to be sad about in this country. There's a lot to be hopeful about too. What you [Lia] and Samia and all of you have done, coming forward today to tell the story, is a reminder to the rest of the country that there's real, genuine goodness and a feeling of fairness and justice that motivates us as Americans. They can't take that away from us if we don't let them."

Video of Durbin's concluding remarks are available here.

Audio of Durbin's concluding remarks are available here.

In response to the Trump Administration's surge in federal law enforcement in Chicago and continuous threats to deploy the military in the area, Durbin has taken a number of steps to push back on these unlawful actions carried out by DHS and Secretary Noem under the direction of President Trump. Durbin's actions to push back on the Trump Administration's so-called "Operation Midway Blitz" can be found here.

Durbin, along with U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), has also notified the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) that they have referred the unlawful actions of Trump Administration officials and federal law enforcement agents responsible for immigration enforcement in Illinois to Attorney General Pam Bondi for investigation. The Trump Administration repeatedly appears to have violated the constitutional rights of individuals in Illinois during "Operation Midway Blitz," and the officials responsible for these violations are acting with impunity. If this Administration fails to pursue charges, the statute of limitations will permit the next Administration to prosecute officials who acted unlawfully.

In December, Durbin also sent an oversight letter to DHS to push back on the Trump Administration's false narrative that it does not arrest U.S. citizens. The letter, which requested a response by December 16, demanded answers about the total number of U.S. citizens arrested during immigration enforcement activity during the Trump Administration; the agencies responsible for the arrests; the length of detention following the arrests; audio or video footage of the arrests; agency directives governing encounters and arrests involving U.S. citizens; and policies regarding the maintenance of citizen arrest data.

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