At a shadow hearing led by Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., on Thursday, witnesses gave powerful testimonies about the impact of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.
Shadow hearings, unofficial congressional hearings typically held by the minority party when the majority party refuses to hold an official one, have been utilized by Democrats more frequently in the Trump administration. Thursday’s hearing was Jayapal’s third time holding one.
Rep. Jayapal began the day’s hearing, titled “Kidnapped and Disappeared: Trump’s Assault Destroys U.S. Families and Communities,” by saying, “Donald Trump lied to the American people. He lied when he said he would bring grocery prices down. He lied when he said he would release the Epstein files. And he sure as hell lied when it came to immigration enforcement.”
Jayapal said that even though Trump said he would focus on “deporting the worst of the worst” and “serious national security threats,” immigration officials are “targeting everyone that they think they might be able to deport, including veterans, farmworkers, green-card holders, students and U.S. citizens.” She said, “The American people see right through this deception and lies.”
Chelsea White, a witness from Nashville, tearfully recounted the events leading up to the deportation of her husband, Hilario Martinez Garzia, whom she described as a “devoted husband and father.”
“For 25 years, Tennessee was his home, where he built a life and contributed to his community,” White said. White said she and her husband were pulled over in what she thought was a normal DUI stop when they were quickly surrounded by officers and separated, with no information about where he was being taken.
“Driving home alone, four months pregnant and in shock, was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. I kept thinking, ‘How am I going to explain this to our kids?’ Hilario had never spent a single night away from us. How do you prepare yourself to do it all alone?” White asked, adding that no one told her where her husband, who suffers from high blood pressure, was being detained for a week. And she didn’t know if he had his medication. After he was eventually deported to Mexico, White said she sold everything she could and took their three children, all of whom are U.S. citizens, with her to join him “in an unfamiliar country.”
“Families belong together without being forced to choose between love and survival,” White said.









