{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://katherineclark.house.gov/2026/08/17/whip-clark-ice-is-a-danger-to-every-person-in-every-community/", "Whip Clark: \u201cICE Is a Danger to Every Person in Every Community\u201d", "2026-08-17", "2026", "2026-08", "Democrat", "House", "MA", "Katherine M. Clark", "C001101", "katherineclark.house.gov", "clark", "https://katherineclark.house.gov/newsroom/", "scraper", "BIDDEFORD, ME \u2014 Today, Democratic Whip Katherine Clark (MA-5) joined Ranking Member Bennie Thompson (MS-2), Rep. Chellie Pingree (ME-1), and Rep. Troy Carter (LA-2) for a field hearing on the killing of Johan Sebasti\u00e1n Dur\u00e1n Guerrero by ICE. Below is a transcript of her remarks:\n\n\u201cThank you to Ranking Member Bennie Thompson for convening this important hearing. And a huge thanks to Congresswoman Pingree for being our host, for being an advocate, and for continuing to seek justice and the truth. We are so very grateful to you. I also want to thank my colleague, Congressman Troy Carter from New Orleans, Louisiana. And Governor Mills, thank you for being with us. But my most deep gratitude for our witnesses, especially Mr. Dur\u00e1n Guerrero\u2019s family. We so appreciate you being here in this time of grief, and pain, and loss. And we appreciate all of you, the community members of Biddeford and those who traveled here to make sure that we continue to shine a light on what happened here.\n\n\u201cThis pain is being felt across the country.\n\n\u201cJohan Sebasti\u00e1n Dur\u00e1n Guerrero was a husband and a father who wanted to give his 3-year-old girl a shot at the American Dream. His cold-blooded murder at the hands of a dangerous, out-of-control ICE agent \u2014 at the hands of an abuser with a history of violence against his own family \u2014 it\u2019s not only a tragedy for this community, it\u2019s a despicable moral stain on our country as a whole.\n\n\u201cThis isn\u2019t someone ICE was looking for. This isn\u2019t a warrant they were executing. This wasn\u2019t a suspect. He hadn\u2019t done anything illegal. This was a random traffic stop that quickly escalated into outright murder. All with ICE\u2019s bodycams off. Even ICE knew that this had gone horribly wrong. Even they decided to halt all vehicular stops in the aftermath, until Trump reversed that decision\u2026 24 hours later.\n\n\u201cIf this can happen to Johan, it can happen to anyone. If this can happen in Biddeford, Maine, this can happen anywhere. ICE is a danger to every person in every community in which they are active if they are not held accountable. We are witnessing systematic, state-sanctioned terror inflicted on innocent people by their own government.\n\n\u201cAnd we condemn it. House Democrats condemn it. All of us across this country condemn it, except for a specific group.\n\n\u201cRepublicans in the House and in Congress continue to fund, greenlight, and cover up for this reckless agency.\n\n\u201cSo our job here today, together, is to shine a light on the truth. And the truth is these are not protectors of our communities, of our laws, of our borders. This is a masked, secret police force that has terrorized children, trampled on our Constitution, and wielded violence as a political weapon.\n\n\u201cAnd the truth is the American people have had enough. Enough fear. Enough terror. Enough inaction from Republicans that won\u2019t stand up to this injustice.\n\n\u201cSo, we thank you again for being here today. I thank the witnesses, not only for being here today but the work you do across Maine every single day for immigrant communities. And I thank you for speaking out and for sharing your stories. I\u2019m grateful to my colleagues and to the family of Johan Sebasti\u00e1n for this important and urgent discussion. I yield back.\u201d\n\nTo watch the full hearing, click HERE.\n\n###", 1, "2026-08-18T05:27:41Z", "2026-08-18T05:29:06Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://katherineclark.house.gov/2026/08/17/whip-clark-ice-is-a-danger-to-every-person-in-every-community/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.9013570379465818, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}