March 30, 2026
“They need to be brought before us and they need to be held [to] account for the trauma that they have created,” Jayapal said during the hearing.
Washington Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal called for federal reparations for the children and families who she labeled as being “traumatized” by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers during the hectic and dangerous implementation of President Donald Trump’s anti-immigration agenda, HuffPost reports.
She made the call during the March 27 congressional hearing called “Kidnapped and Disappeared: Trump’s Attack on Children,” focusing on the president’s ICE deployments and the need for “defensive reform” in an effort to prevent federal agents from continuing to inflict emotional damage. She said Congress is “going to have to have some form of reparation for the kids and the families that have been traumatized through all of this.” “And then we also need offensive actions around prosecutions. We need real accountability, because at the end of the day, the people who have been inflicting this harm need to be prosecuted,” Jayapal said.
“They need to be brought before us, and they need to be held to account for the trauma that they have created.”
The congresswoman’s remarks seem supported by data on the damage caused by ICE agents nationwide. In addition to U.S. citizens like Renée Good and Alex Pretti losing their lives after being fatally shot in early 2026 during encounters with federal immigration agents in Minnesota, data from the Immigrants’ Rights Clinic at Columbia Law School and an analysis by The Guardian found that the number of children in immigration detention increased significantly.
Between January and October 2025, agents detained more than 3,800 children, including 5-year-old Liam Ramos, who made national headlines, two 5-year-old twins, and a 2-month-old infant.
Ahead of the hot-ticketed mid-term election, Jayapal, who serves as the ranking member of the House Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement, threatened that a change is coming if her party wins back control of the House and she is elected to lead the subcommittee. “If I am chair of the immigration subcommittee, we will be pursuing all of these pieces,” Jayapal said regarding her reparations proposal, according to the New York Post.
She didn’t reveal how the reparations would be funded or the eligibility standards, but claims they would be used to provide “support” to people who didn’t receive financial relief after ICE interactions.
Jayapal’s anti-ICE stance has been clear, even most recently voting against a bill that would fund the agency’s host Department of Homeland Security (DHS) after being unfunded since Feb. 14. The bill passed with a 213-209 vote to fund DHS for 60 days, but is rumored not to be a favorite for the Senate. “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,” the congresswoman 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.”
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