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Progressive Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) is calling for illegal immigrants to be paid reparations over alleged trauma they sustained from the Trump administration’s crackdown and ICE operations across the US.
Jayapal made the shocking revelation on Friday in front of a panel of “experts” during a hearing she hosted titled “Kidnapped and Disappeared: Trump’s Attack on Children.”
“We are going to have to have some form of reparation for the kids and the families that have been traumatized through all of this,” Jayapal said at the conclusion of the hearing.
The 60-year-old lawmaker, who was born in India and obtained her US citizenship in 2000, has been a vocal critic of President Trump and his immigration crackdown.
Trump’s Department of Homeland Security launched multiple ICE operations to root out illegal immigrants, but led to violent clashes between federal officials and pro-immigration protesters, including the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minnesota.
Jayapal serves as the ranking member of the House Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement.
She threatened to move forward with her reparations proposal if the Democrats win back control of the House and elect her to lead the subcommittee.
“If I am chair of the immigration subcommittee, we will be pursuing all of these pieces,” Jayapal indicated.
“We need offensive actions around prosecutions. We need real accountability because at the end of the day, the people that have been inflicting this harm need to be prosecuted,” Jayapal said. “They need to be brought before us and they need to be held account for the trauma that they have created.
In Jaypal’s half-baked proposal, the reparations would be used to fund “support” for the people who didn’t receive relief following their interactions with immigration officials.
“There’s a lot that’s on our plate but I want you to know how seriously we take this issue and how committed I am,” she said.
Jayapal didn’t reveal how the reparations would be funded or how her subcommittee would evaluate who would be eligible to receive such funds.
The fifth-term congresswoman used her anti-ICE stance as the reason she voted against Friday night’s House-passed stopgap bill.
“I have been clear since the start of the appropriations process; I will not vote to give Trump’s ICE or CBP another cent without major reforms,” she said in a statement. “ICE and CBP agents have killed American citizens on the streets, terrorized communities, and forever traumatized families and children. Republicans in the House and Senate continue to refuse to implement any meaningful reforms — it appears they want ICE and CBP to continue their lawless reign of terror against American families and communities.”
The bill, passed with by a 213-209 vote would fund the entire DHS for 60 days, but it is unlikely to make it past the Senate.
The DHS has been unfunded since Feb. 14.
Senate Democrats have leveraged the 60-vote filibuster to block funding for DHS while demanding sweeping reforms to ICE, including restrictions on the ability of agents to wear masks and a tighter judicial warrant system — both of which Republicans have rejected.
President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act has supplied funds to ICE and CBP until 2029, with the shutdown only affecting other portions of Homeland Security, including TSA, FEMA and the Coast Guard.
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