Ranking Member Robert Garcia Launches Investigation Into DHS with Sen. Blumenthal, Joins LA Mayor Karen Bass to Demand Accountability for Unlawful Detentions of U.S. Citizens and Immigrants by Federal Agents

Washington, D.C. — Today, Rep. Robert Garcia, Ranking Member of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and Senator Richard Blumenthal, Ranking Member of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee Committee on Investigations, wrote to U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem demanding information and records from the agency following widespread reports of wrongful detentions of U.S. citizens by agents at the Department of Homeland Security. Reports document citizens being held for extended periods, being denied access to counsel, and other civil rights violations.

Rep. Robert Garcia then joined Mayor Karen Bass and local immigration rights leaders at an event in Los Angeles to demand justice and accountability from the Trump Administration following reports of the unlawful detention of U.S. citizens and immigrants by federal agents. Last week, ProPublica documented that 170 American citizens have been arrested by the Department of Homeland Security.

“American citizens are being dragged off the streets by masked men and thrown into detention cells without access to a lawyer or even a phone call,” said Ranking Member Robert Garcia. “No one, regardless of their background or appearance, should be living in fear of being thrown behind bars by their own government because of their race or what they look like. This is not the America we know and love. Every person in this country has rights, and DHS must stop trampling on our civil liberties. Their actions are unconstitutional, unacceptable, and completely un-American, and we will not stop fighting until this Administration is held accountable.”

In the letter to Secretary Kristi Noem, Ranking Member Robert Garcia and Senator Blumenthal wrote, “The impact of these arrests has not been evenly distributed across the country, and cities like Chicago, Portland, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles have been targeted heavily by ICE and CBP. Troublingly, the pattern of U.S. Citizen arrests coincides with an alarming increase in racial profiling—particularly of Latinos—which has been well documented in Los Angeles. Justice Kavanaugh justified this policy on the false grounds that ‘[i]f the officers learn the individual they stopped is a U. S. citizen or otherwise lawfully in the United States, they promptly let the individual go.’ In a pattern symptomatic of a disregard for civil rights by DHS, U.S. citizens have faced extended periods of detention.”

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