Yassamin Ansari · TranslatePolitics.com

House of Representatives

Concerns on Proliferation of Data Centers

2026-09-02

“Donald Trump attacked communities that don't want more data centers. He called them backwards and poor. But data centers use a lot of water and electricity. That's bad for people who live there. People in Arizona are worried about water and electricity. I think they are right to be worried. The government gives tax breaks to rich companies that build data centers. That's not fair. Donald Trump has a financial interest in a company that builds data centers. He is using his power to get richer. That's a conflict of interest. We need to stop building data centers until we have a plan to protect people. Congress should investigate Trump's conflict of interest.”

Official Congressional Record

Mr. Speaker, this week, Donald Trump attacked communities across the country that are raising concerns about the proliferation of gigantic, power-hungry data centers. He called them backwards and poor. According to the President, Americans should welcome data centers without question if they want to become ``successful and rich.'' His exact declaration was: ``Let data reign.'' That is a wildly out-of-touch response to Americans who are worried about their electricity bills, their water supply, and the future of their communities, all of which are being made dramatically worse by this administration. I represent Phoenix, Arizona, the Nation's fifth largest city, and we don't need any more data centers in our communities right now. We are already on the front lines of a severe and historic water crisis. The Trump administration just slashed our Colorado River water allocation by nearly 30 percent. Meanwhile, a single data center can consume tens if not hundreds of millions of gallons of water every year. If every currently planned project in the Phoenix area is built, data center water demand could increase by more than 450 percent. It is extremely alarming, and my constituents are right to express their concerns on how our government allocates its resources, including by providing immense tax breaks to ultra-rich AI and data center companies. Our electricity grid is also under enormous strain. Arizona families are facing higher utility bills, most especially as a result of Trump's illegal war in Iran, all while data centers demand staggering amounts of energy. Research has found that these facilities can make surrounding neighborhoods as much as four degrees hotter, in a city like Phoenix where extreme heat already kills people. These are not irrational concerns. Even Vice President JD Vance admitted that 99 percent--his words--of the backlash against data centers is happening in places where they are driving up utility bills. Protecting Arizona's water is not backwards. Keeping electricity affordable enough for seniors to turn their air conditioners on during the summer is not poor, and allowing the wealthiest companies on the planet to consume our water and power while working families absorb the cost is not progress. But here is the real reason that Donald Trump is so eager to tell communities to stop pushing back against data centers: Donald Trump is the sole beneficiary of a trust holding nearly 115 million shares of Trump Media. Trump Media is pursuing a pending $6 billion merger with TAE Technologies, an energy company that explicitly markets its technology for AI data center expansion. In other words, the President himself has an enormous financial interest in a company positioning itself to benefit from the growth of the data center energy market. He is once again using his Presidency to enrich himself and his family. That creates a glaring conflict of interest when it comes to Trump using the power and platform of the Presidency to attack communities resisting the construction of new data centers. Americans deserve to know whether he is speaking for the public interest or promoting his own investment portfolio. I support Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes' call for a statewide pause. Arizona should not approve another massive data center until we have a comprehensive plan to protect our water, our electrical grid, and Arizona ratepayers. Congress also needs to investigate the President's conflict of interest and demand full transparency about how financial holdings intersect with his administration's data center and energy policies. We can believe in American innovation without handing Big Tech a blank check on our water supply and electricity bills. Arizonans are not backward and poor. We are tired of being told to sacrifice more so that billionaires and the President himself can become richer.

View on ourcommons.ca ↗

House of Representatives

Accountability for ICE

2026-07-14

“I hate ICE. I think they are bad people who murder innocents. I think the Trump administration is fascist and cruel. I think they want to hurt immigrants and make money for private prisons. I think ICE lies to cover up their crimes. I want to abolish ICE. I want to prosecute everyone responsible for ICE's actions. I think Republicans in Congress should do something to stop this.”

Official Congressional Record

Madam Speaker, ICE, the President's paramilitary secret police force, continues to roam American streets and murder people in broad daylight and in cold blood. First, it was Ruben Ray Martinez in March 2025, but ICE covered it up and kept it from the public. Then, it was Alex Pretti and Renee Good. ICE shot and killed these two innocent people in Minnesota who had done nothing more than exercise their constitutional right to protest and free speech. Then, the administration's rightwing propaganda machine got to work, smearing these two heroes as ``domestic terrorists,'' without an ounce of evidence. This was coordinated and directed by leadership of the Department of Homeland Security, by then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and by the White House itself through heinous, racist voices like Stephen Miller. It is not a mistake. ICE agents are completely out of control, and that is on purpose. That is their mission. This is what the Trump administration wanted to happen from the start--to funnel hundreds of billions of dollars to their paramilitary force and then use masked agents and a nationwide effort to spread fear and terrorize immigrant communities. The mass deportation agenda is part of their fascist, far-right scheme to amass power by using immigrants as scapegoats and deploying Federal troops to American cities, like my hometown of Phoenix. All across this country, people are shocked, outraged, and appalled by ICE's conduct and the sheer cruelty of Trump's mass deportation agenda. Yet, it continues to happen in service of arbitrary, brutal quotas for bodies--quotas for bodies of real people to fill beds so that for-profit prison companies like GEO Group and CoreCivic can rake in billions of dollars and families can be torn apart and deported to third countries they have never known. We are talking about 10,000 arrests in a 5-day period this past week. As part of all of these horrors, ICE has carried out two sickening murders just in the last week: one in Houston and one in Maine. ICE is using pathetic excuses and spreading more misleading information with the Federal Government's bully pulpit to cover up their crimes. This is Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a 52-year-old father who was driving to work and was shot and murdered while doing so. He was not a domestic terrorist. He wasn't going to ram his vehicle into anybody. He had no criminal record whatsoever. He was a hardworking, beloved father of American citizens who was working hard to build the American Dream. If you haven't watched his son Ronaldo speak about his dad, I recommend you do so. It is heart-wrenching. It is outrageous that ICE is claiming Lorenzo ``weaponized his vehicle in an attempt to run over an ICE law enforcement officer.'' Multiple witnesses have testified that there were never any ICE agents in front of the van. They came in and started shooting from the sides. As with Alex Pretti and Renee Good, ICE is lying and lying badly. I honestly cannot believe how terrible their lies are. That wasn't enough. ICE murdered another person in Maine, 26-year-old Joan Sebastian Guerrero, somebody who had a work permit, somebody who had a U.S. Social Security number. Then, DHS put out a statement just yesterday, just last night, that said that this man was trying to drive away, and they shot him for these vague assertions of public safety. ICE murdered a Maine resident, a law-abiding resident, in front of his wife and his 3-year-old daughter for no reason whatsoever. This is just pure evil. Democrats in Congress have been demanding accountability for well over a year. We are a nation of laws, not a nation of secret police, cold-blooded murders by Federal agents on city streets, and black site detention centers. We must urgently work to stop these horrific abuses. It is a moral stain on our country. We must abolish ICE, and we are going to prosecute every single person responsible for directing, enabling, or carrying out these crimes. Lives are at stake. How many more families and communities need to be torn apart for Republicans in Congress to do something?

View on ourcommons.ca ↗