Imagine what $45 billion spent on mass immigration detention could do to help Americans?
It could provide access to childcare for working families, create affordable housing, repave the roads in our community; it could help Americans with affordability issues as costs continue to climb.
Congress Member Profile|U.S. Representative|Democrat|Texas District 16
Veronica Escobar
Source: Wikipedia • View full (CC BY-SA)
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Voting Record — 498
Yes40%
No59%
Present0%
Not Voting1%
Party align98%
Cross-party0%
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District Map
Congressional District 16
U.S. Census Bureau boundary data.
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External Resources
Veronica Escobar
U.S. RepresentativeDemocratTexas District 16
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Veronica's ATmosphere Activity
20 recent posts · 13 sponsored · 60 cosponsored
Recent ATmosphere posts, sponsorships, and cosponsorships.
But Trump is more interested in putting his mass deportation plan on steroids, regardless of the destruction he creates, including the harm to our economy.
www.texastribune.org/2025/08/13/t...
There was a cost that came with high migration, but Democrats never cut programs for Americans to provide humanitarian support for migrants.
Republicans are gutting programs for Americans to fund deportations of immigrants who helped save our economy.
apnews.com/article/immi...
I raised similar issues with the Biden Administration and worked with them to mitigate the impact on our community during periods of high migration.
escobar.house.gov/news/documen...
Aside from the warped priority that this massive expansion of immigration detention represents, its historic expense, and the gutting of programs for Americans to fund it, this camp has already taken away from military resources and will pull from some of our local resources.
The huge price tags for this camp and mass deportations have nothing to do with public safety. ICE is deprioritizing criminals in order to meet the daily quotas.
As one ICE insider said, “All that matters is numbers, pure numbers. Quantity over quality.”
nypost.com/2025/06/17/u...
Trump wants to deport every immigrant possible – ordering a minimum of 3,000 daily arrests – whether they have legal protections, are in legal proceedings or are Dreamers.
It’s all about fulfilling Stephen Miller’s fantasy of deporting at least a million immigrants a year.
Most immigrants being arrested, held in these camps, and deported by Trump aren’t criminals.
They've lived, worked and had family in the U.S. for many years. Aside from entering the country without documents, most in custody now have committed no crimes.
www.cato.org/blog/ice-arr...
While Donald Trump said he would focus mass deportation efforts on “the worst of the worst,” and Senator Cornyn said Camp East Montana would only hold those with final orders of removal or criminal convictions, none of those claims are true.
There were 1,000 male detainees on site during my visit and the capacity is expected to grow to 5,000 and hold women in the future.
Unlike previous oversight visits I've made (during the Biden and first Trump administrations), I wasn't allowed to speak with the detainees.
During my 30 minute press conference after the tour, we watched truckloads of supplies delivered to this $1 billion camp that requires significant resources for construction, food, cleaning, technology, laundry, security, healthcare and more for 1000s of detained immigrants.
This $1.24 BILLION detention center, "Camp East Montana," is massive.
It is funded by Trump's "one, big, beautiful" bill, which cuts healthcare and nutrition programs for Americans to give billionaires tax breaks and spends $45 BILLION for more corporate-run immigration detention.
ICYMI: On Monday I toured what will become the largest immigration detention facility in the U.S., built on Fort Bliss military installation property, and operated by a private contractor.
Here's what I saw and some takeaways 🧵
Today I spent over two hours conducting oversight at the new $1.2 billion migrant detention facility on Fort Bliss.
The facts are simple: Donald Trump’s mass deportation plan is unbelievably costly and failing to target the ‘worst of the worst.’
Watch my full recap here:
These proposals are nothing short of trying to prevent Americans from participating in our electoral process.
And it's in line with the Trump administration's continued attacks on our democracy and its institutions.
Yet on Friday during his summit with Putin, Trump was told quoted Putin as saying that "our [2020] election was rigged because [we] have mail-in voting."
I can't emphasize how deeply alarming it is that Trump is following Putin's lead on this issue.
www.nytimes.com/2025/08/18/u...
So why is Trump doing this, and why now?
At several points last year, he encouraged his own supporters to vote by mail.
www.pbs.org/newshour/pol...
As for voting machines, they help us quickly, safely, and accurately tally votes. In addition, almost all — 98 percent — of votes cast in the 2024 election had a paper record which election officials can then use to verify the accuracy of voting machines.
www.brennancenter.org/our-work/res...
Yet should Trump move forward with eliminating the use of mail-in ballots, that would've meant that for 2024, almost 10,700 El Pasoans would've had their mail-in votes not count.
ep-county-elections-production.s3.amazonaws.com/documents/fi...
Even in Texas, despite cries from Republicans about "rampant voter fraud," the Republican Attorney General has only found 33 "potential noncitizens who allegedly voted" in 2024.
Out of 11.3 million ballots cast, that's 0.0003% of votes cast.
www.kxan.com/news/texas/t...
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Voting History498 total votesExpandCollapse
Voting History
498 total votes
Recent roll calls with party-majority context so it is easier to scan how this member tends to vote.
| Date | Bill | Question | Position | Party Maj | Align? | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-12-17 | H.R. 6703 (119th) | Final passage | NO | NO | ✓ | Passed |
| 2025-12-17 | H.R. 6703 (119th) | Send back to committee | YES | YES | ✓ | Failed |
| 2025-12-17 | H.R. 3616 (119th) | Final passage | NO | NO | ✓ | Passed |
| 2025-12-17 | H. Con. Res. 64 (119th) | Approve resolution | YES | YES | ✓ | Failed |
| 2025-12-17 | H. Con. Res. 61 (119th) | Approve resolution | YES | YES | ✓ | Failed |
| 2025-12-17 | H. Res. 953 (119th) | Approve resolution | NO | NO | ✓ | Passed |
| 2025-12-17 | H. Res. 953 (119th) | End debate now | NO | NO | ✓ | Passed |
| 2025-12-16 | H.R. 3632 (119th) | Final passage | NO | NO | ✓ | Passed |
| 2025-12-16 | H.R. 3632 (119th) | Send back to committee | YES | YES | ✓ | Failed |
| 2025-12-16 | H.R. 4371 (119th) | Final passage | NO | NO | ✓ | Passed |
| 2025-12-16 | H.R. 4371 (119th) | Send back to committee | YES | YES | ✓ | Failed |
| 2025-12-16 | H. Res. 951 (119th) | Approve resolution | NO | NO | ✓ | Passed |
| 2025-12-16 | H. Res. 951 (119th) | End debate now | NO | NO | ✓ | Passed |
| 2025-12-16 | H.R. 3187 (119th) | Fast-track passage | YES | YES | ✓ | Passed |
| 2025-12-15 | S. 284 (119th) | Fast-track passage | YES | YES | ✓ | Passed |
| 2025-12-12 | H.R. 3668 (119th) | Final passage | NO | NO | ✓ | Passed |
| 2025-12-12 | H.R. 3668 (119th) | Send back to committee | YES | YES | ✓ | Failed |
| 2025-12-11 | H.R. 2550 (119th) | Final passage | YES | YES | ✓ | Passed |
| 2025-12-11 | H. Res. 432 (119th) | Approve resolution | YES | YES | ✓ | Passed |
| 2025-12-11 | H.R. 3898 (119th) | Final passage | NO | NO | ✓ | Passed |
| 2025-12-11 | H.R. 3898 (119th) | Send back to committee | YES | YES | ✓ | Failed |
| 2025-12-11 | H.R. 3383 (119th) | Final passage | NO | NO | ✓ | Passed |
| 2025-12-11 | H.R. 3383 (119th) | Approve amendment | YES | YES | ✓ | Failed |
| 2025-12-11 | H.R. 3383 (119th) | Approve amendment | YES | YES | ✓ | Failed |
| 2025-12-11 | H.R. 3383 (119th) | Approve amendment | NO | NO | ✓ | Failed |
| 2025-12-11 | H.R. 3638 (119th) | Final passage | NO | NO | ✓ | Passed |
| 2025-12-11 | H.R. 3628 (119th) | Final passage | NO | NO | ✓ | Passed |
| 2025-12-11 | H. Res. 939 (119th) | Kill the motion | NO | NO | ✓ | Passed |
| 2025-12-10 | H. Res. 432 (119th) | Motion to Discharge | YES | YES | ✓ | Passed |
| 2025-12-10 | S. 1071 (119th) | Final passage | NO | YES | ✕ | Passed |
| 2025-12-10 | S. 1071 (119th) | Motion to Commit | YES | YES | ✓ | Failed |
| 2025-12-10 | H. Res. 936 (119th) | Approve resolution | NO | NO | ✓ | Passed |
| 2025-12-10 | H. Res. 936 (119th) | End debate now | NO | NO | ✓ | Passed |
| 2025-12-10 | H.R. 1676 (119th) | Fast-track passage | YES | YES | ✓ | Passed |
| 2025-12-09 | S. 356 (119th) | Fast-track passage | YES | YES | ✓ | Passed |
| 2025-12-04 | H.R. 1049 (119th) | Final passage | NO | NO | ✓ | Passed |
| 2025-12-04 | H.R. 1069 (119th) | Final passage | NO | NO | ✓ | Passed |
| 2025-12-03 | H.R. 1005 (119th) | Final passage | NO | NO | ✓ | Passed |
| 2025-12-03 | H.R. 4305 (119th) | Final passage | NO | NO | ✓ | Passed |
| 2025-12-03 | H.R. 2965 (119th) | Final passage | NO | NO | ✓ | Passed |
| 2025-12-02 | H. Res. 916 (119th) | Approve resolution | NO | NO | ✓ | Passed |
| 2025-12-02 | H. Res. 916 (119th) | End debate now | NO | NO | ✓ | Passed |
| 2025-12-02 | H.R. 4423 (119th) | Fast-track passage | YES | YES | ✓ | Passed |
| 2025-12-01 | H.R. 5348 (119th) | Fast-track passage | YES | YES | ✓ | Passed |
| 2025-11-21 | H. Con. Res. 58 (119th) | Approve resolution | NO | NO | ✓ | Passed |
| 2025-11-20 | H.R. 1949 (119th) | Final passage | NO | NO | ✓ | Passed |
| 2025-11-20 | H.R. 3109 (119th) | Final passage | NO | NO | ✓ | Passed |
| 2025-11-20 | H. Res. 893 (119th) | Motion to Refer | YES | YES | ✓ | Passed |
| 2025-11-20 | H.R. 6019 (119th) | Fast-track passage | YES | YES | ✓ | Passed |
| 2025-11-20 | H.R. 4058 (119th) | Fast-track passage | YES | YES | ✓ | Passed |
Alignment stats consider only votes where a clear yes/no majority existed for the legislator's party. Cross-party marks divergence where the vote matched the opposite party majority. ↔ indicates cross-party divergence.