{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://underwood.house.gov/media/press-releases/underwood-condemns-dhs-secretary-kristi-noem-operation-midway-blitz-speech", "Underwood Condemns DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, Operation Midway Blitz, in Speech Delivered from House Floor", "2025-11-21", "2025", "2025-11", "Democrat", "House", "IL", "Lauren Underwood", "U000040", "underwood.house.gov", "underwood", "https://underwood.house.gov/media/press-releases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON \u2014 Yesterday, Rep. Lauren Underwood, Ranking Member of the Homeland Security Subcommittee on Appropriations, delivered the following speech from the House floor:\n\n\u201cI rise today because what happened in Illinois during Operation Midway Blitz can never happen again.\n\nThe last time this chamber convened before House Republicans took an 8-week vacation was September 19th.\n\nSo, this is the first chance I\u2019ve had to address the House about the outrageous abuses of power our community has endured for the past two months.\n\nUnder Kristi Noem\u2019s so-called leadership, Department of Homeland Security agents have terrorized my district.\n\nTheir reckless and incompetent methods have traumatized families and endangered entire neighborhoods.\n\nNo community in America should live under siege by the federal government, as mine has.\n\nFederal immigration officers and National Guard personnel, weaponized and politicized by the Trump Administration, swept into my district with no communication, no coordination, no transparency, no accountability, and no regard for public safety.\n\nThey came barging into our towns, ignored our laws, and trampled on our civil and human rights.\n\nIn Aurora, a federal agent pepper sprayed a constituent of mine directly in the face from inches away, while she was standing completely still with her hands at her sides, unarmed.\n\nElsewhere in my district, we heard reports that federal officers used an elementary school as a staging area, positioning armed tactical teams on school grounds in full view of children.\n\nParents are afraid to leave their homes after hearing about neighbors abducted by masked agents while walking their kids to school, leaving the children unattended by the side of the road.\n\nWorkers fear going to their jobs, our economy is suffering, and local businesses have seen foot traffic collapse.\n\nBecause, despite the Trump Administration\u2019s claims of targeting \u201cthe worst of the worst,\u201d their immigration enforcement operations have been a chaotic mess\u2014sweeping up U.S. citizens, legal immigrants, and people with no criminal record.\n\nI was horrified when federal agents rappelled down from helicopters to a Chicago apartment complex in the middle of the night, smashed windows and doors, threw flash-bang grenades, dragged children from their beds, and zip-tied and detained U.S. citizens for hours.\n\nAnd yet, after all that, federal prosecutors have not filed criminal charges against anyone detained that night.\n\nAnd in a recent court filing, DHS listed 614 people arrested as part of Operation Midway Blitz\u2014and only 16 of them have criminal histories of any kind. That\u2019s 2.6%.\n\nThe other 598 people have no criminal record!\n\nWhat\u2019s happening in Illinois is called racial profiling.\n\nGreg Bovino, the Border Patrol agent who led Operation Midway Blitz, literally told a reporter that agents arrest people based on, quote, \u201chow they look.\u201d\n\nMasked officers are violently targeting people, including U.S. citizens, because their brown skin and black hair make them seem suspicious.\n\nThis is a complete failure. Our Founding Fathers warned us about this type of government overreach after seeing how a desperate king\u2019s troops could trample on our unalienable right to LIBERTY.\n\nAnd yet, as we approach our 250th birthday, we are confronting a similar tyranny.\n\nThat\u2019s not all\u2014many of those arrested were essentially disappeared. Members of Congress could not get basic information from DHS about where they took our constituents.\n\nDuring the Republican shutdown, DHS leadership chose to furlough the liaisons we rely on to locate detainees and resolve urgent casework.\n\nWhen a constituent reached out because her husband was denied access to medical care in a detention facility, my office\u2019s emails bounced back, and our calls went unanswered. Weeks later, I\u2019m still waiting for a response.\n\nBut the shutdown didn\u2019t stop DHS agents from harassing citizens and using force on peaceful protesters, because the Administration deemed these violent tactics \u201cessential.\u201d\n\nThat was not an accident. That was a policy choice.\n\nThis is not what legitimate law enforcement looks like.\n\nOperation Midway Blitz disregarded Illinois state laws, federal laws, and the U.S. Constitution.\n\nDue process\u2014a foundational constitutional right for ALL people in this country\u2014went out the window. Local police and officials were kept in the dark. People were snatched off the streets seemingly at random.\n\nMany of my constituents felt like they were being hunted, because of the language they speak or the color of their skin. Simply because they needed to run an errand at the hardware store or walk their kids to school.\n\nThis is not about public safety. When the President has the power to terrorize American communities for his political purposes, it makes us all less safe, and less free.\n\nThe people of Illinois deserve answers\u2014and Americans deserve better.\u201d\n\nFootage of Underwood\u2019s speech can be viewed here.", 1, "2026-04-04T05:28:40Z", "2026-04-04T05:30:10Z"]], "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://underwood.house.gov/media/press-releases/underwood-condemns-dhs-secretary-kristi-noem-operation-midway-blitz-speech"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.4819451607763767, "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"}