Hahn Testifies at Congressional Hearing on ICE Misconduct

LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn Nov. 24 testified at a House Oversight Committee Field Hearing held in Downtown Los Angeles on ongoing ICE raids in Los Angeles County. The hearing was organized by the committee’s Ranking Member Congressman Robert Garcia and Mayor Karen Bass. Hahn focused on the ways ICE has violated the rights of her residents, the targeting of law abiding workers, and her efforts at the county to ban ICE from wearing masks. 

Watch Video of Hahn Testimony 

Hahn delivered the following testimony: 

Good morning. Thank you to my friend, Ranking Member of the House Oversight Committee Congressman Robert Garcia, for holding this important hearing. And thank you to all the members who took the time to be here to hear the stories of what our residents have been going through.

The communities I represent have been being terrorized by ICE since June. They hit Long Beach hard this past week – chasing down and tackling a gardener working at Polly’s Pies – a Long Beach institution. They raided a church. They questioned terrified parents waiting for their children outside an elementary school.

They are not communicating with local law enforcement, and we know they are not targeting violent criminals. They are targeting people based on the color of their skin, or their accent, or the place that they work – and they are violating our residents’ rights every day they are on our streets.

They raided a Swap Meet in Santa Fe Springs and multiple witnesses said, “if you looked Hispanic in any way, they just took you.”

In Whittier, ICE arrested a man walking on the sidewalk – only to be forced to release him hours later, because even though he was a Mexican national, he was here completely legally on a tourist visa.

In October, they grabbed three men just out for a walk in LA County’s Friendship Park in my neighborhood in San Pedro. When our LA County Parks and Recreation employees asked for identification—the ICE agents threatened to arrest them.

These agents are behaving as if they are above the law. A community led organization who is monitoring ICE’s work called the Harbor Area Peace Patrol has documented ICE agents swapping license plates between vehicles – or taking plates off all together.

They cover their faces and refuse to wear badges or identify themselves. They pull people into unmarked vans at gunpoint and wonder why people resist arrest.

This is how an authoritarian’s secret police operate – not legitimate law enforcement in a democracy.

I want this committee to know the pain ICE is causing in Los Angeles County – the children who may never see their parents again, the families who are going hungry without breadwinners, the longtime residents deported to countries they barely know.

Our LA County Board of Supervisors has taken what steps we can to protect our residents. We declared a State of Emergency so that we can better respond to the devastating impact ICE raids have had. And next week, I will ask the Board to vote on an ordinance to ban all law enforcement from wearing masks.

But we need your help. That is why this hearing is so important. We cannot allow ICE to continue to operate above the law. We need Congress to be a check on the Trump Administration’s unlawful abuse of power.

Thank you.