Following Supreme Court Ruling on Immigration Enforcement, Larson Announces Congressional Effort to Block ICE Takeover of Federal Housing Data
Washington, D.C. - Today, Rep. John B. Larson (CT-01) announced the Home Together Act, legislation he is cosponsoring with Rep. Juan Vargas (CA-52) to protect immigrant families by blocking theU.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development from sharing records with ICE and other immigration enforcement agencies, including home addresses and ethnicities. The introduction of the Home Together Act follows an effort from Larson and House Democrats to protect sensitive taxpayer data from ICE in court.
Last week, the Supreme Court cleared the way for federal immigration authorities to make indiscriminate stops based on ethnicity, language, and other factors. Trump ‘border czar’ Tom Homan has said that ‘physical appearance’ could be considered probable cause for ICE to detain and question someone.
“Donald Trump’s masked ICE operatives continue to terrorize our Latino communities, often with no evidence of any wrongdoing,” said Larson. “In Connecticut’s First District, they have taken workers from two car washes, detained a visa holder in an unmarked van in East Hartford, and separated a mother from her young children in Newington. A week after the Supreme Court shamefully green lit their racial profiling, it is beyond alarming to know home addresses and ethnicities were put into ICE’s hands with no oversight. The buck stops here. I will not stand idly by to these Soviet secret police tactics. This Supreme Court may not see a problem with racial profiling, but we do. Congress must act now to protect immigrant families from being targeted in the comfort of their own homes.”
Following an ICE raid in Newington, Rep. Larson called on Congress to pass the No Secret Police Act, to require ICE agents to identify themselves and bar them from wearing masks, and the Protecting Sensitive Locations Act, to prevent ICE raids at schools, hospitals, courthouses, and places of worship. He also joined a group of his Democratic colleagues to launch a probe into ICE detention of service members, veterans, and military families.
Larson and Vargas were joined as cosponsors by Reps. Sylvia Garcia (TX-29), Sam Liccardo (CA-16), Rob Menendez (NJ-08), Delia Ramirez (IL-03), Sydney Kamlager-Dove (CA-37), Raja Krishnamoorthi (IL-08), Bennie G. Thompson (MS-02), Rashida Tlaib (MI-12), Mark Takano (CA-39), Nanette Barragán (CA-44), Yvette Clarke (NY-09), Sara Jacobs (CA-51), Lateefah Simon (CA-12), Jan Schakowsky (IL-09), Jim Costa (CA-21), Betty McCollum (MN-04), Ted W. Lieu (CA-36), Yassamin Ansari (AZ-03), Jimmy Gomez (CA-34), Dan Goldman (NY-10), Henry C. "Hank" Johnson, Jr. (GA-04), George Latimer (NY-16), Nydia M. Velazquez (NY-07), Suzan DelBene (WA-01), Dwight Evans (PA-03), Luz Rivas (CA-29), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY-14), Eleanor Holmes Norton (DC-AL), and Nikema Williams (GA-05).
Full bill text is available HERE.