Press Release: 3/6/2026
Pressley Blasts Trump's ICE Attacks for Traumatizing Children, Urges Children Be Centered in Policymaking
March 4, 2026
Pressley Has Led Efforts in Congress to Address Childhood Trauma, Championed Policies to Support Child Health, Education, Safety
Pressley Has Stood in Vigorous Defense of Immigrant Communities in MA 7th and Nationwide, Fighting to Bring Detained Neighbors Home
WASHINGTON – During today’s House Oversight Committee hearing, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley (MA-07) centered the children detained and traumatized by ICE who are being forced to bear the effects of lifelong trauma.
Congresswoman Pressley has led efforts in Congress to address childhood trauma, including holding the first Congressional hearing on childhood trauma on the Committee on Oversight and Reform with the late Chairman Elijah Cummings. Rep. Pressley has also been a leading voice in pushing back and defending our immigrant neighbors in the Massachusetts 7th and nationwide.
Last week, in her boycott of Trump’s State of the Union, Rep. Pressley spent the day uplifting the stories of childrentraumatized and detained by ICE through counterprogramming engagements, a floor speech, and an office installationdepicting their stories and art.
A transcript of Congresswoman Pressley’s remarks is available below, and the video is available here.
Transcript: Pressley Blasts Trump’s ICE Attacks for Traumatizing Children, Urges Children be Centered in Policymaking
Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
March 4, 2026
REP. PRESSLEY: I’ve been in Congress now for almost eight years, and one of the most meaningful moments that I experienced here was in the Committee on Oversight and Reform under the great Chairman Elijah Cummings.
It was the first hearing to take place, that I introduced in the House of Representatives, on the epidemic that is childhood trauma.
Though I represent the Massachusetts 7th, one through line has remained true in my travels and conversations, from Massachusetts to Minnesota to Illinois to Texas, and it is the devastating impacts of Trump’s terror campaign on our nation’s children.
This Administration’s policies—including, but certainly not limited to Operation Metro Surge—in my opinion, I would characterize as child abuse, child neglect, and inflicting childhood trauma.
We are experiencing in real time the compounded adultifying of our children where, increasingly so, a childhood is a privilege instead of a right.
I’m reminded of a conversation I had recently at the airport where a dad approached me to talk about his six-year-old son who returned home from school, pleading and begging for his parents to give safe haven to his classmate, his best friend, for fear that if they did not do that, that he would be deported.
No child should have those concerns or carry that heavy burden.
But this is the reality for our nation’s children under Donald Trump’s America.
Frederick Douglass said, “It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.”
We are certainly not building strong children.
In my district, the Massachusetts 7th, Ailany was only two weeks old when her father was wrongfully taken by ICE, a trauma that she will carry for the rest of her life.
Again, so far, I’m speaking about the pleas of a six-year-old and the policy—rather, the family separation—of a two-week-old.
In Minnesota, Liam Ramos was, only at the age of five years old, was detained by ICE and sent to Texas, and he’ll carry that trauma for the rest of his life.
There are the children that are directly impacted.
Then there is that secondary trauma for those who have bore witness.
While in Minnesota, I met with parents who have had to establish parental patrols armed with whistles and orange vests and their cameras to try to keep their children safe.
Green Street Elementary, it was just across the street from one of the murders that occurred in broad daylight under Operation Metro Surge.
Around the country, the children of Renee Good, Keith Porter, Geraldo Campos, and dozens of other children whose parents were killed by ICE agents will carry that trauma the rest of their lives.
Trauma in their bodies, their classrooms, their sleep.
It shows up in the ways they cling to their parents at school drop off, in the silence of a child who used to speak freely, in nightmares that no children, no child should be visited by.
Governor Walz, as a former educator and coach, you worked closely with young people experiencing traumatic events.
What effect does this have on them, their classmates, and community?
And have you heard from mental health professionals or pediatric providers about how this is showing up in your state?
GOV. WALZ: No. Well, thank you for the question, Congresswoman.
First of all, I would say when I talk about Minnesota being one of the best states, if we’re not first, it’s usually because Massachusetts is.
And I note that it is true because you care about this and you mentioned it correctly.
This is generational trauma that’s been inflicted, whether it’s learning loss that’s happened or the trauma we’ve seen amongst our children.
I say that as an educator, as Governor, the deep concern, but as a parent of seeing this, what’s happened to our children.
We know that mental health issues will start to show up.
We know that we’ll see educational loss, and those have generational impacts on our economy and everything else.
I will note your colleague mentioned me being a tyrant during COVID—we had some of the lowest deaths due to COVID.
Tyrant looks like children being drugged from their parents, old people being drug out of their house without warrants, two dead on the streets.
And your point—the world saw a piece of it on TV—I can tell you, none of us are going to be the same Congresswoman.
We are going to deal with this, and we are going to put money into social service programs to address it, while we tighten up fraud protections.
Because the idea is, is you have all these generous programs, yes, and our people are healthier, our people are more educated, our economy stronger. So, thank you.
REP. PRESSLEY: Thank you. I ask unanimous consent to enter into the record a February 2026 article from Hechinger Report titled, “Parental stress, raids and isolation: How immigration enforcement traumatizes even the youngest children.”
CHAIRMAN COMER: Without objection to order.
REP. PRESSLEY: You know, as I close, I’ve always taken issue with the myth that children are resilient, something that people say because I guess it brings them comfort.
The false notion that if you hurt kids, they will automatically heal.
It allows policymakers to inflict harm and then to look away.
But children are not collateral for reckless and godless policies, and they should not be ignored.
Rather, we should center children to understand the impacts of all these policies.
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As a leading voice and legislator, Rep. Pressley’s advocacy to protect children from abuse and trauma dates back to her days as a Boston City Councilor. In her first term in Congress, she partnered with the late Chairman Elijah Cummings to hold the first Congressional hearing on childhood trauma on the Committee on Oversight and Reform.
Rep. Pressley leads the STRONG Support for Children Act, which would support communities in addressing childhood trauma through healing-centered, neighborhood-based, gender-responsive, culturally specific, and trauma-informed approaches that acknowledge the impact of systemic racism and inequities over generations. She has called for such trauma-informed and child-centered approaches to every issue, including: surging baby formula to Gaza, addressing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on students, addressing sexual harassment targeting children and women girls, committing to end gun violence, and more.
In recent weeks, Rep. Pressley has shone light on the inhumane attacks by ICE on immigrant communities and pushed back against the reckless agency. During Oversight Democrats’ bicameral shadow hearing on the use of violence by ICE, Rep. Pressley highlighted the urgency of the moment by uplifting stories of traumatized community members she met with during her trip to Minnesota with Rep. Ilhan Omar (MN-05) and invoking the horrifying detention case of five-year-old Liam Ramos.
In the Massachusetts 7th, Rep. Pressley has recognized and supported the many families torn apart and children suffering from the detention of a loved one—including harrowing attacks on Massachusetts families in their daily lives, abductions of dedicated workers at the Allston car wash, visiting Tufts graduate student Rümeysa Öztürk during her unlawful detention and pushing to bring her home, and more.
As immigrant communities have been under siege by the Trump administration, Rep. Pressley has been a leading voice in pushing back and defending our immigrant neighbors.
Last week, Rep. Pressley convened immigrant entrepreneurs and small business owners, community advocates, and municipal leaders to hear of the essential role that immigrant-owned small businesses play in Massachusetts’ economy and communities and how they are suffering under Trump’s attacks.
In January 2026, Rep. Pressley and Senator Markey held a field hearing with members of the Haitian community on the importance of extending Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Haiti. Testimony was documented in the Congressional Record.
Rep. Pressley also leads a discharge petition that could compel the House vote on a bill to require the Trump Administration to extend TPS for Haiti for three years.
In February 2026, during Oversight Democrats’ bicameral shadow hearing on the use of violence by ICE, Rep. Pressley demanded Congress end qualified immunity to ensure federal law enforcement officers are held accountable for breaking the law and murdering civilians. Rep. Pressley called on her colleagues not to settle for bare minimum reforms in funding negotiations for the Department of Homeland Security, instead urging them to fight to rebalance power and restore accountability.
In January 2026, at the invitation of Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (MN-05), Congresswoman Pressley went to Minneapolis to meet with organizers and community members impacted by ICE’s violent operation in Minnesota, where they have murdered bystanders, terrorized schools and small businesses, and abducted children and parents.
Following the ICE murder of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, Congresswoman Pressley and Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) introduced the Qualified Immunity Abolition Act of 2026, which builds on the lawmakers’ prior work by granting victims the right to sue federal law enforcement officers—not just state and local—for civil rights violations and abolishing the defense of qualified immunity in these suits. The expanded legislation would help deliver accountability for families abused by law enforcement, including ICE agents.
Congresswoman Pressley delivered a floor speech on the need to end qualified immunity for federal law enforcement, including immigration officers. Watch the floor speech here.
In January 2026, Congresswoman Pressley condemned the ICE murder of Renee Good in Minnesota and motioned to subpoena all records and footage related to the shooting, but Republicans obstructed it. Footage of Congresswoman Pressley’s motion to subpoena is here.
In December 2025, Rep. Pressley convened and welcomed home the workers and families
impacted by the cruel and unlawful ICE raid at an Allston car wash in November. Rep. Pressley delivered a powerful speech on the House floor condemning the Allston ICE raid and defended the vibrant immigrant communities who are being maliciously stolen from their homes, ripped from their families, and unlawfully detained and deported by the Trump Administration and Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
In June 2025, Congresswoman Pressley convened immigrant justice advocates, local leaders, and impacted families to tell Donald Trump and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE): Hands off our immigrant neighbors.
Rep. Pressley has also been an outspoken critic against the unlawful detention of Rümeysa Öztürk, a Tufts PhD student, Somerville resident, and constituent of the Congresswoman’s who was unlawfully detained for weeks in retaliation for her protected speech. After weeks of advocacy and Congressional oversight, including a visit to detention centers in Louisiana, Rep. Pressley and Senator Ed Markey welcomed Ms. Öztürk to Massachusetts following her arrival from ICE detention in Louisiana.
Rep. Pressley has also spoken out against reports of ICE activity in the MA 7th and other municipalities in Massachusetts.
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