The Texas Democrat, who has become known for fiery exchanges and provocative remarks, appeared to signal that another confrontation was coming before she even began her remarks.
Addressing fellow lawmakers, Crockett joked about her reputation for inflammatory comments, saying, “y’all knew it was coming, especially once I showed up.”
Moments later, she launched into a sweeping attack on the legislation and those backing it.
Crockett first criticized immigration detention facilities, particularly centers used to house large numbers of illegal immigrants awaiting processing or removal. But her remarks quickly shifted from policy criticism to broader accusations against Republicans and the Trump administration.
“But let’s talk about what this is really about,” she said. “and I know y’all knew it was coming, especially once I showed up: It’s racist. It’s just racist, racist, racist!”
WATCH:
The congresswoman insisted that concerns over illegal immigration are not genuinely about public safety or border security.
“Okay, now let me tell you why it is racist. All right, this ain’t about whether or not you’re concerned that the immigrant is coming in and the immigrant is gonna kill everybody. That is not what it is. It’s not,” Crockett said.
She then pointed to comments previously made by President Trump as evidence for her argument.
“It’s the things like what your fearless leader said when he said they’re poisoning the blood, okay? What this is about is racism!”
The congresswoman also criticized the administration’s decision to provide refugee opportunities to White South Africans who claim they are facing discrimination and violence in their home country.
“Let me just be clear: your president, he is the one that said white South African refugees needed their own program, and so therefore he decided that he would raise the cap on how many refugees could come into the United States, but it was only raised for white South Africans. The administration set a limit of 17,500 slots planned to admit more white South Africans as refugees this year,” she said.
As the hearing continued, Crockett broadened her criticism to Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, accusing the agency of incompetence and racial profiling.
According to Crockett, ICE agents are “completely incompetent” and don’t “know how to do the daggone job,” while allegedly “specifically targeting people because of how they look.”
The most controversial portion of her remarks came when she began discussing indigenous populations and the history of colonization in America.
“The people that were here are the indigenous folk, and you know who ICE been rounding up? They’ve been rounding up indigenous people, the people that originally came, not the colonizers, but the original people,” Crockett shouted.
She then escalated her rhetoric even further.
“So, what this is about is whiteness. Everything that this administration has pushed has been about white supremacy, your fear. In fact, you say things like, ‘Oh, you just want them to come in so that they will vote for you,’ because we know that when you look at the numbers, I mean, I’m just being real with this, but white people, they not the ones that carry the Democrats. They aren’t. And so this is literally about you say things, you tell on yourselves, you believe that somehow they will become citizens and they will start voting in the interest of equity. Those are the things you fight against when you say no diversity, equity, and inclusion.”
Crockett also pushed back against arguments linking illegal immigration and crime, arguing that criminal behavior is not limited to any racial or ethnic group.
“You want to sit up here and act like the crime is being perpetrated by people of color, but the statistics say otherwise. If you look at the real numbers… anybody can commit a crime on any given day.”
She did not clarify whether she was referring to overall crime totals, demographic trends, or another statistical measure.
Closing out her remarks, Crockett accused her political opponents of promoting misinformation and refusing to confront historical issues related to colonization.
“I know that y’all believe in propaganda, and y’all don’t want people to know the truth, and y’all definitely don’t want them to know history, because then you gotta again acknowledge colonizing,” she said.
The heated exchange quickly became one of the most talked-about moments of the hearing, highlighting the increasingly sharp divide between Democrats and Republicans on immigration, border security, race, and the future direction of U.S. policy. With the border issue expected to remain a dominant topic heading into the midterm elections, Tuesday’s clash offered another glimpse into the fierce political battles likely to continue in Washington in the months ahead.
