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Congressman Joaquin Castro (TX-20), a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and First Vice Chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, today made the following statement:

WASHINGTON—Congressman Joaquin Castro (TX-20), a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and First Vice Chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, today made the following statement:

 

Congressman Joaquin Castro (TX-20), a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and House Permanent Select Committee, and First Vice Chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC), led members of the Hispanic Caucus in asking Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen about the conditions at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas that led to the death of 18 month-old Mariee. Specifically, the letter urged Nielsen to direct the Office of the Inspector General to examine whether Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Health Service Corps provided the appropriate care for Mariee, whether overall care for detainees can be improved to prevent such tragedies moving forward, and for DHS to employ alternatives to detention.

Congressman Joaquin Castro (TX-20), a member of the House Committees on Foreign Affairs and Intelligence, and Congressman Mark Meadows (NC-11), a member of the Committees on Oversight and Government Reform, Transportation and Infrastructure and Foreign Affairs, welcomed the unanimous passage of their bipartisan measure, the Global Electoral Exchange Act (H.R. 5274). This legislation would authorize the Secretary of State to administer exchange programs for electoral authorities between the United States and overseas partners to promote best practices and strengthen electoral institutions and democracies abroad.