Cory A. Booker

Greeting · 8 wordsI am grateful for your recognition, Mr. President.Greeting Procedure · 52 wordsAnd I am going to try to get this order right. This is legislative session. I am going to give some remarks and then ask for a unanimous consent on a bill. But I really want to, first, talk about something really challenging, tragic, that happened in the State of New Jersey.Procedure Claims · 6 wordsEdwin Lopez-Cornejo died. He is dead, Reasoning · 11 wordsand it is a death that did not have to be. Claims · 30 wordsHe was detained by ICE on June 18.¹ He was sent to Delaney Hall in my home city, in Newark, NJ--it is a detention center--and he never came out alive.² Mr. President, Claims · 99 words20 years--20 years--Edwin lived in the United States of America, 20 years of building a life here, 20 years of being connected to people and community, 20 years of making here in America a way forward.³ And yet, in less than 2 months of detention, the immigration system in our country led to his death. And in Delaney Hall, he is the third person in 9 months to die; ⁴the 23rd person to die in ICE custody this year--not the first warning sign, not the second, this is the third death at the same facility and yet nothing changes.⁵ Procedure · 27 wordsLet me tell you exactly how Edwin Lopez-Cornejo died because his family deserves to have his name said on the Senate floor and his story told plainly.Procedure Claims · 42 wordsEdwin had diabetes.⁶ He had high blood pressure.⁷ He needed his medication to survive, and Delaney Hall denied it to him.⁸ The day before he died, he told his mother that his arm had gone numb, half his face had gone numb.⁹ Reasoning · 27 wordsAnd understand, this is not a minor complaint. This was a man that was having a medical emergency, telling someone exactly what was happening to his body. Claims · 115 wordsDid anyone come to his aid? No. Did he get his medication? No. Less than 24 hours, he was dead.¹⁰ Doctors have warned us, attorneys have warned us in New Jersey, families have warned us, a chorus of people in our communities--not politicians, not political activists--doctors, lawyers have been warning us, detainees who walked out of that building, with their testimony and the facts and the evidence, people have said over and over again that this facility is dangerous. It is not well run, and within it is a pattern of disregard for human decency. DHS has known that Delaney Hall is nothing short of a travesty since they reopened it over a year ago.¹¹ The question · 27 wordsSo who runs what is, for so many, a house of horrors? Who runs the institution that I saw myself when I went there and met people? Claims · 46 wordsThis is not for serious criminals. This is not a place for folks who have done serious crimes in our country. This is a detention facility for people, many of them have been in our country for decades, many of them have American spouses, American children. Anecdote · 61 wordsAnd when I went there, I saw mothers who were recently postpartum who were not getting the support. I saw a woman who lost her child while in that detention facility, had a miscarriage there, did not get the support that she needed. Story after story, people told me what is going on there, the horrors that are going on there.Anecdote The question · 4 wordsAnd who runs it? Claims · 150 wordsThe U.S. Government does not run that center. It is a private group called the GEO Group, a private for-profit prison that has high-level Republican officials among its former employees.¹² This group won a billion-dollar contract: ¹³no competition, no bidding, lots of campaign contributions, a phone call, a signature, and they have a billion dollars of taxpayer money. New Jersey had to sue this company just to get health inspectors through the front door of a facility operating on American soil, funded by American taxpayers, ¹⁴and our State couldn’t even do basic health inspections. They did not get--they did not get--the permits to open that place. They did not have inspections before they did so. This is a private company taking a billion dollars of American taxpayer money. The less they provide sanitary services, the less they provide doctors and medical professionals, the more profit they make off of taxpayers. The question · 3 wordsAt whose expense? Positioning · 19 wordsAt the decency of American people and at the expense of the lives of the people who are there.Positioning Claims · 8 wordsWe give them hundreds of millions of dollars. The question · 9 wordsAnd what are the reports out of Delaney Hall? Claims · 55 wordsSpoiled food, contaminated water, staff who retaliate against people brave enough to speak up about the conditions. A billion dollars in inadequate accountability. A billion dollars in inadequate healthcare. A billion dollars and a man whose face is numb, whose arm is numb, who is asking for help--does not get treatment, does not get healthcare. Procedure · 5 wordsSo, here is the truth.Procedure Claims · 87 wordsIt is clear for the GEO Group that part of their business model is this cruelty: cut medical staff, skimp on food, let the air-conditioning go out during the hottest days in New Jersey, let the roof leak, cram more bodies into less space. Every corner cut is a dollar of their profit. Every dollar of their profit is a dollar that the GEO Group’s executives get to celebrate on their next earnings call. GEO Group’s stock has more than doubled since February of 2026--more than doubled.¹⁵ The question · 3 wordsYou know why? Positioning · 4 wordsWell, follow the money.Positioning Claims · 21 wordsThree million dollars from the GEO Group and its executives went into Donald Trump’s campaign, into his PAC, into his inauguration.¹⁶ Positioning · 15 wordsIt is a pay-to-play that is worse than that. A pay-to-play and people get hurt.Positioning Claims · 18 wordsLives are lost. Over $2 billion in Federal contracts to run facilities like Delaney Hall in our country.¹⁷ Positioning · 33 wordsThis is not immigration policy. This is not what we stand for. No one loses their humanity because they are incarcerated. No one should lose their basic rights because they are behind bars.Positioning Claims · 44 wordsLook, I am all for what this administration promised it would do. They said they would go after the ``worst of the worst.’’ They said they would go after the people threatening our communities, menacing our families. We should all be supportive of that. Positioning · 17 wordsI believe we should have strong borders. I believe we should get criminals off of our streets.Positioning The question · 12 wordsBut the people actually locked up in that building in Delaney Hall? Claims · 18 wordsWe know that more than 70 percent of the people have never been convicted of a single crime.¹⁸ Anecdote · 25 wordsI met a high school student who had more of a Jersey accent than I do, who just wanted to walk with his class--rounded up.Anecdote Claims · 79 wordsI have had the Catholic church reach out to me because of the sweeps they are doing around schools and churches. I have had family members beg me to get folks out in order to see their American children hit milestones like birthdays and graduations. I have been appealed to by everyone from priests to Republicans in our community. Many are following our laws. But we in the U.S. Senate, Congress, hold the purse strings the administration depends on. Reasoning · 79 wordsWe should be a check and a balance. We should demand that our taxpayer dollars are being used.Vague promise And when we see a body count climbing that is not normal, when we see more and more deaths, when we see a mother’s son whose face went numb the night before, we should be asking for action and accountability.Vague promise Edwin Lopez-Cornejo’s death was not a tragedy. A tragedy is something that no one could have prevented. This is a choice. Claims · 19 wordsEvery single day the DHS keeps Delaney Hall open is another choice to let this happen, three times already. Reasoning · 6 wordsWe should not make this choice. Mr. President, The ask · 23 wordsI am now asking for a unanimous consent to pass the Delaney Hall Closure Act, which would close Delaney Hall within 90 days.¹⁹ Positioning · 10 wordsThey are out of excuses. We are out of time.Positioning The question · 6 wordsHow many more people should die? The ask · 51 wordsSo as if in legislative session and notwithstanding rule XXII, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to immediate consideration of my bill at the desk; that the bill be considered read three times and passed and that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table. Procedure · 5 wordsThe PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Lummis).Procedure The question · 4 wordsIs there an objection? Procedure · 4 wordsThe Senator from Missouri.Procedure