Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Texas is drawing backlash after saying ICE enforcement has left neighbors shot, children kidnapped, and communities living in fear. In an X post sharing hearing footage from Capitol Hill, the outgoing Democrat also accused the administration of fueling the agency and said Republicans “didn’t even bother to show up.” Online users pushed back, arguing the clip described deportations, not kidnappings.
The roughly one-minute video shows Crockett speaking from a House hearing dais as she tells viewers who “would say that I don’t do politics” that “politics will do you.” She points to “brave souls that are sitting here” who “are telling their stories,” then says she does not want those accounts treated as “one-offs” and asks anyone in the room “impacted by ICE in a detrimental way” to stand.
The clip cuts to a wide view of the hearing room, including empty seats behind the dais, as she says “the reality is that there are so many of us and so many more stories” and “so many more names that you will never hear.”
Back in close-up, she says, “We have only 42 days,” “I don’t want you all to get distracted,” and “I am not saying compromise who you are,” before adding that “if you care about your neighbors, or if you want to be selfish and you care about yourself, it is time to vote them out.”
In the accompanying caption, Crockett wrote, “This is bigger than partisan politics. This is about people.” She added, “Our neighbors are being shot, our children are being kidnapped, and our communities are living in fear,” and said that “while this administration continues to fuel the agency at the center of it all, Republicans didn’t even bother to show up.” She closed, “Enough. We deserve better.” The post does not name the agency in the caption text; the claims about shootings, kidnappings, and who was absent have not been independently confirmed in the clip itself.
How Viewers Are Responding to Crockett’s Hearing Remarks
Some users treated the remarks as a warning about enforcement and empty seats. One wrote, “America, we aren’t pissed off enough about these atrocities, that breaks my heart.”
Another said Republicans “didn’t bother to show up at that hearing,” and a third argued they stayed away “bc their stance is indefensible.”
Others rejected the wording in the caption. One commenter wrote, “Children ‘kidnapped’? That’s federal agents enforcing laws Congress wrote,” adding, “Enforcement ain’t kidnapping.”
Another said, “There is a difference between being kidnapped and detained.” A third replied that the people described “aren’t being kidnapped; they are being removed.”
A separate group focused on who should be protected. One user said Crockett “didn’t say a thing about the Americans who were murdered,” while another asked, “What part of ‘ILLEGAL ALIEN’ don’t you understand?”
Still others pointed to attendance in both directions, including a reminder that Democrats have also skipped hearings and a note that “no one was there.”
It is not yet clear whether the remarks will travel much beyond the hearing clip itself. The video continues to circulate as viewers argue over how she described ICE, the empty seats, and her call to “vote them out.”
