{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://pressley.house.gov/2026/08/14/watch-pressley-mcgovern-lynch-conduct-unannounced-oversight-visit-of-plymouth-ice-facility-renew-calls-for-accountability/", "WATCH: Pressley, McGovern, Lynch Conduct Unannounced Oversight Visit of Plymouth ICE Facility, Renew Calls for Accountability", "2026-08-14", "2026", "2026-08", "Democrat", "House", "MA", "Ayanna Pressley", "P000617", "pressley.house.gov", "pressley", "https://pressley.house.gov/news/", "scraper", "Pressley Has Conducted Oversight of ICE Facilities in MA and Acrossthe Country, Advocated for Children Detained by ICE, Named Impacted Families as Honorary State of the Union Guests\n\nPressley Has Stood in Vigorous Defense of Immigrant Communities, Fought to Bring Detained Neighbors Home, and Led Efforts to Address Childhood Trauma\n\nMedia Availability (YouTube) | Photos (Dropbox)\n\nPLYMOUTH, MA \u2013 Today, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (MA-07), alongside Congressmen James P. McGovern (MA-02) and Stephen F. Lynch (MA-08), conducted an unannounced Congressional oversight visit of the Plymouth County Correctional Facility\u2014the only facility in Massachusetts currently holding civil immigration detainees on a long-term basis. Federal law gives members of Congress the authority to conduct unannounced oversight visits of ICE detention facilities without providing advance notice.\n\nFollowing their visit, the lawmakers held a media availability calling for the release of individuals unlawfully imprisoned there and accountability for the harm and trauma caused by Trump and ICE\u2019s campaign of terror. Congresswoman Pressley also called for the release of her constituent Darwin, whose fianc\u00e9e joined the lawmakers following the visit, and who has suffered from traumatic physical injuries and treatment in prior ICE custody and reported lack of access to health assistive devices, potable water, and nourishing food at the Plymouth facility.\n\n\u201cUnder this cruel, lawless Trump administration, families are being separated, children are traumatized, and our communities are suffering,\u201d said Congresswoman Pressley. \u201cI came to Plymouth to conduct an oversight visit of a major detention facility in our state, check on my constituents, and demand accountability of ICE as they deny the humanity and rights of our community members. Learning of the trauma experienced by innocent individuals like my constituent Darwin and his fianc\u00e9 are a damning reminder of the injustice of these detentions and the need to abolish ICE, end qualified immunity for ICE agents, and stop Trump and ICE\u2019s campaign of terror. Today, I am more resolute than ever in my fight for the freedom, dignity, and humanity of our immigrant neighbors.\u201d\n\n\u201cIn 2018, I became the first Member of Congress to demand that we abolish ICE,\u201d said Congressman McGovern. \u201cAfter hearing heartbreaking stories today at the Plymouth detention facility from folks who were abducted by ICE on their way to work and ripped away from their families, my resolve to abolish ICE has never been stronger. Under orders from the Trump administration, masked federal agents are terrorizing our communities, stalking our streets, and executing American citizens in broad daylight with impunity. Any American with a conscience must join us in calling for this rogue agency to be abolished, for ICE agents to be held accountable, and for the human rights and dignity of immigrants to be respected without condition.\u201d\n\n\u201cWhile President Trump claims that ICE operations are targeting the \u201cworst of the worst,\u201d the individuals in ICE custody that we met with today included a police officer and construction workers who were on the job with valid work permits and active Social Security numbers. In fact, many of the individuals in ICE detention at the Plymouth Correctional Facility have open immigration cases and prior to their arbitrary arrests, were seeking to comply with the formal processes governing applications for immigrant visas, asylum, and humanitarian parole. Absent substantive reforms including body camera requirements, a prohibition on agents wearing masks, the termination of arbitrary enforcement operations, and the adoption of humane use of force standards, ICE will continue to operate outside the law and we must keep fighting to oppose agency funding,\u201d said Rep. Lynch. \u201cWe must also keep exercising our legal right, as Members of Congress, to conduct unannounced oversight inspections of ICE detention facilities to better ensure that individuals in custody are treated humanely and that ICE is transparent and accountable to the American people.\u201d\n\nIn Congress, Congresswoman Pressley has been a leading voice in pushing back against Trump, defending our immigrant neighbors, and calling for ICE to be abolished. Rep. Pressley has visited individuals behind the wall at detention facilities in Texas, Louisiana, and Massachusetts and leads legislation to bring accountability to families whose loved ones have been murdered and harmed by ICE agents, including the DHS Use of Force Transparency Act and the Qualified Immunity Abolition Act.\n\nA transcript of Congresswoman Pressley\u2019s remarks is available below and the video from the media availability is available here. Photos from the visit are available here.\n\nTranscript: Rep. Pressley\u2019s Remarks Following Unannounced Oversight Visit of Plymouth ICE Facility\n\nU.S. House of Representatives\n\nAugust 14, 2026\n\nWell, and let me just, you know\u2014I know technically they are characterized as detainees\u2014but just to center their humanity, today we met with Jose, we met with Alexis, we met with Darwin.\n\nThese are sons. These are fathers. These are husbands. Men who are loved by their families, whose labor is valued and essential to the functioning of our communities and our economies. They are sorely missed by their families, and they desperately miss their families.\n\nJose, for example, 30 years old, has a four-year-old and a two-year-old. He\u2019s never met his two-year-old daughter Ariella\u2014Ariela, rather. And as Jim mentioned, he was a police officer in Ecuador, and in his time spent here, he has worked in construction.\n\nWe met with, with Darwin and Alexis, and both talked about how they miss working, and they\u2019re, they\u2019re eager to get back to work. They find dignity in their work, they take pride in their work. They take pride in the role that they play, many of them as the sole breadwinners in their families, not only their families here, but money that they are sending back to countries like Ecuador, Honduras.\n\nI asked about where are most of the detainees from, and the countries were Guatemala, El Salvador, Ecuador, and Honduras, with some rare exceptions.\n\nBut what is very clear is that this is a waste of money and a waste of time. And for what? We have separated families. We are causing trauma, and we have people that are providing valuable contributions to community, of which we are all being denied.\n\nSo it is a tremendous injustice to these families and a great disservice to our communities writ-large.\n\nOne of the, one of the men that we met with, Darwin. This is his fianc\u00e9 Angelina, and I\u2019m going to turn things over to her in a moment. But I want to say two things.\n\nI\u2019ve said repeatedly that our strategy as a Democratic caucus is litigation, legislation, agitation, when necessary, and mobilization.\n\nThe reason we could do this unannounced visit today is because of litigation initiated by our task force, and because that, the court sided with Joe Neguse, Congressman Neguse, and the rest of us who signed on to that\u2014that is why we could do this today.\n\nSo, although the work of litigation can move more slowly than we would like, that is why we could do this unannounced visit today.\n\nSecondly, I reinforced for Jose, Alexis, and Darwin that there are people who\u2019ve never met them, who care about them, and are fighting for their freedom. And they all expressed the relief that they felt in knowing that, that they had not been forgotten.\n\nAnd so, in that aim, I also want to acknowledge that since two of the gentlemen here who were arrested and detained were picked up in Vermont, and so we made sure they knew that Senator Welch and Senator Sanders, that we were here, you know, in their stead, and again that there are people working vigorously on their behalf.\n\nAnd so I now turn it over to Angelina to tell more of Darwin\u2019s story.\n\n\u2014\n\nAs immigrant communities have been under siege by the Trump administration, Rep. Pressley has been a leading voice in pushing back and defending our immigrant neighbors.\n\nIn the Massachusetts 7th, Rep. Pressley has supported the many families torn apart and children suffering from the detention of a loved one\u2014including harrowing attacks on Massachusetts families in their daily lives, abductions of dedicated workers at the Allston car wash, visiting Tufts graduate student R\u00fcmeysa \u00d6zt\u00fcrk during her unlawful detention and pushing to bring her home, and more.\n\nRep. Pressley has shone light on the inhumane attacks by ICE on immigrant communities and pushed back against the reckless agency. During Oversight Democrats\u2019 bicameral shadow hearing on the use of violence by ICE, Rep. Pressley highlighted the urgency of the moment by uplifting stories of traumatized community members she met with during her trip to Minnesota with Rep. Ilhan Omar (MN-05) and invoking the horrifying detention case of five-year-old Liam Ramos.\n\nRep. Pressley has stridently condemned the trauma that Trump\u2019s terror ICE campaign is forcing upon children. Rep. Pressley\u2019s advocacy to protect children from abuse and trauma dates back to her days as a Boston City Councilor. In her first term in Congress, she partnered with the late Chairman Elijah Cummings to hold the first Congressional hearing on childhood trauma on the Committee on Oversight and Reform.\n\nRep. Pressley leads the STRONG Support for Children Act, which would support communities in addressing childhood trauma through healing-centered, neighborhood-based, gender-responsive, culturally specific, and trauma-informed approaches that acknowledge the impact of systemic racism and inequities over generations.\n\nDuring her time in Congress, Congresswoman Pressley has been a leading advocate for a just and humane criminal legal system, and has visited prisons in Louisiana, Texas, California, and Massachusetts to hear from detainees, advocate for them, and conduct oversight on the conditions in which they are being detained. Rep. Pressley\u2019s visit to Louisiana is a continuation of her advocacy for a People\u2019s Justice Guarantee, her comprehensive, decarceration-focused resolution that outlines a framework for a fair, equitable and just legal system.\n\nIn May 2026, Rep. Pressley pushed for the closure of the Dilley Detention Center and other detention facilities committing human rights abuses. In a House Oversight Committee hearing, Rep. Pressley emphasized the state-inflicted trauma imposed on children by detention centers.\n\nIn April 2026, the House of Representatives passed Congresswoman Pressley\u2019s bipartisan discharge petition by a vote of 220-207 to extend Haiti TPS for three years. Congresswoman Pressley won a key procedural vote on the discharge petition and managed debate on the House floor prior to the successful final passage vote. Last month, Rep. Pressley\u2019s discharge petition successfully met the 218-signature threshold to move forward with bipartisan support\u2014only the 15th discharge petition to do so in the last 40 years.\n\nIn March 2026, Rep. Pressley visited the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Boston Field Office in Burlington, to conduct oversight of the operations and conditions of the facility. Rep. Pressley engaged with ICE staff and leadership in a closed-door tour and discussion in the facility.\n\nIn March 2026, Rep. Pressley and Rep. Dave Min (CA-47) introduced the DHS Use of Force Transparency Act of 2026 to \u200b\u200bincrease transparency and government oversight regarding injuries and deaths caused by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity.\n\nIn February 2026, during Oversight Democrats\u2019 bicameral shadow hearing on the use of violence by ICE, Rep. Pressley demanded Congress end qualified immunity to ensure federal law enforcement officers are held accountable for breaking the law and murdering civilians. Rep. Pressley called on her colleagues not to settle for bare minimum reforms in funding negotiations for the Department of Homeland Security, instead urging them to fight to rebalance power and restore accountability.\n\nIn February 2026, Rep. Pressley convened immigrant entrepreneurs and small business owners, community advocates, and municipal leaders to hear of the essential role that immigrant-owned small businesses play in Massachusetts\u2019 economy and communities and how they are suffering under Trump\u2019s attacks.\n\nIn January 2026, Rep. Pressley and Senator Markey held a field hearing with members of the Haitian community on the importance of extending Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haiti. Testimony was documented in the Congressional Record.\n\nIn January 2026, at the invitation of Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (MN-05), Congresswoman Pressley went to Minneapolis to meet with organizers and community members impacted by ICE\u2019s violent operation in Minnesota, where they have murdered bystanders, terrorized schools and small businesses, and abducted children and parents.\n\nFollowing the ICE murder of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, Congresswoman Pressley and Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) introduced the Qualified Immunity Abolition Act of 2026, which builds on the lawmakers\u2019 prior work by granting victims the right to sue federal law enforcement officers\u2014not just state and local\u2014for civil rights violations and abolishing the defense of qualified immunity in these suits. The expanded legislation would help deliver accountability for families abused by law enforcement, including ICE agents.\n\nCongresswoman Pressley delivered a floor speech on the need to end qualified immunity for federal law enforcement, including immigration officers. Watch the floor speech here.\n\nIn January 2026, Congresswoman Pressley condemned the ICE murder of Renee Good in Minnesota and motioned to subpoena all records and footage related to the shooting, but Republicans obstructed it. Footage of Congresswoman Pressley\u2019s motion to subpoena is here.\n\nIn December 2025, Rep. Pressley convened and welcomed home the workers and families impacted by the cruel and unlawful ICE raid at an Allston car wash in November. Rep. Pressley delivered a powerful speech on the House floor condemning the Allston ICE raid and defended the vibrant immigrant communities who are being maliciously stolen from their homes, ripped from their families, and unlawfully detained and deported by the Trump Administration and Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE).\n\nIn June 2025, Congresswoman Pressley convened immigrant justice advocates, local leaders, and impacted families to tell Donald Trump and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE): Hands off our immigrant neighbors.\n\nRep. Pressley has also been an outspoken critic against the unlawful detention of R\u00fcmeysa \u00d6zt\u00fcrk, a Tufts PhD student, Somerville resident, and constituent of the Congresswoman\u2019s who was unlawfully detained for weeks in retaliation for her protected speech. After weeks of advocacy and Congressional oversight, including a visit to detention centers in Louisiana, Rep. Pressley and Senator Ed Markey welcomed Ms. \u00d6zt\u00fcrk to Massachusetts following her arrival from ICE detention in Louisiana.\n\n###", 1, "2026-08-15T05:23:20Z", "2026-08-15T05:24:50Z"]], "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://pressley.house.gov/2026/08/14/watch-pressley-mcgovern-lynch-conduct-unannounced-oversight-visit-of-plymouth-ice-facility-renew-calls-for-accountability/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 3.3991369418799877, "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"}