Last Saturday, Rep. Maxine Dexter, D-Portland, escorted a family — including a 7-year-old girl — from a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in Texas back to Oregon. The Crespo-Gonzalez family was seized last month in Portland while bringing their sick child to urgent care.

Dexter spoke to OPB’s “Think Out Loud” about her trip to Texas, her Congressional work focused on immigration policy and also spoke to the Trump administration’s repeal of the Environmental Protection Agency’s “endangerment finding.” That finding is the scientific basis of the government’s ability to regulate greenhouse gasses and make climate change policy.

Here are highlights from that conversation, edited for brevity and clarity.

Dexter on visiting the detention center in Dilly, Texas where the Crespo-Gonzalez family had been held for three weeks

“We wanted to see the conditions, how many children were there, how many families, whether they had humane and appropriate conditions or not. But the primary reason was because Diana had been taken and it was egregious. The family had enormous support in the community and we were being responsive, trying to advocate for them.

“We gave the seven days required notice for our visit last Thursday. We had emailed, we brought copies of that email. We gave 48 hours’ notice of who my staff was, and we sent the privacy release forms for the Crespo-Gonzalez family so that we could be sure to talk with them. Those are sort of the bureaucratic hoops that they’ve asked us to jump through, and we did all of those and had documentation.

“You know, I’ve had this experience over and over again. And what I can tell you is when I show up, people are released. And so, whether or not it is cause and effect, it has happened over and over again.”

On the administration’s approach to immigration enforcement

“What is clear to me is that there’s no solid grounds for them to be holding these people. You know, all the people we have advocated for have all had active asylum cases, work permits, no criminal history. These are not the worst of the worst. They are people who are caught up in an inhumane and cruel system.

“Literally one of my constituents, I just showed up with a privacy release form, asked to see him, and they said, ‘We’ll go get him.” And then they said, ‘Sorry, we’re not going to let you see him here because we’re releasing him.’ So what it says to me is that they don’t have clear grounds for detaining these folks, and when they are put under pressure, they can’t justify keeping them.”

On the restrictions she and her party want to see on ICE, Customs and Border Patrol

“I want to be clear that family detention, children detention, absolutely in my mind, needs to be on that list. It is inhumane. It’s not making anybody safer, but there’s a very clear list, including removing masks, stopping warrantless arrests, and illegal searches and seizures. The fact of the matter is, we are asking them to follow the law in most respects, and the fact that that is even a needed request is absolutely absurd.

“What I can tell you is people have been scared, intimidated, and increasingly angry about the lawlessness and the cruelty of the immigration enforcement. Our community here in Portland has been resounding in its demands that we stand firm, that we defund ICE, that we dismantle or abolish ICE. That is not a highly debated issue, at least in the constituents I’m hearing from.

“And I think that is spreading throughout the country in more and more traditionally Republican districts. So what I think it means for all of us is that whether or not the Republicans come to the table and negotiate in good faith on this, the people want to see us fight. They want us to stand up for the Constitution, for basic civil rights.”

On the shift she sees among her Republican colleagues in their approach to immigration policy

“I think there is clarity that immigration reform is needed. There’s no question that Donald Trump won on immigration reform being necessary. [But] nobody voted for this. Nobody wanted executions of Americans in the streets. And my Republican colleagues are also having to deal with the impacts. I was just talking to farmers yesterday, that they don’t have people to harvest their crops. They can’t get H-2A visas for people to come into the country. That we are losing health care workers that are already in dire, overstressed states. The skilled labor needed to build housing has shown an impact on declining production.

“If you care about the economy and affordability, you have to care about immigrants. And so this impact that people aren’t showing up for work, that they are stepping out of the economy is a concern that my Republican colleagues, I think, are more and more grappling with at this point. So whyever you care about immigration right now, a lot of people in this community care because this is illegal, immoral, inhumane enforcement.

“I think the Republicans are also having to deal with the impacts on the economy and their constituents in a way that is bringing us all to an understanding that something has to change.”

On her vision of what federal immigration enforcement should be

“ICE was created in 2003. We’ve had immigration for hundreds of years before that. It did not have to be under a large umbrella of Homeland Security. Customs and Border Protection has very clear ability to enforce the border and immigration law within 100 miles of the border, which is more liberal, I think, than most of us feel like it should be at this point.

“What we need is enforcement of the law, and we need pathways so people aren’t trying to cross illegally. You know, people aren’t trying to break the law. They’re trying to build a new life, one with opportunity and stability. So, immigration enforcement is inextricably tied in my mind to legal pathways for immigration.

“We do have to know who’s coming in our country, what their history is, what they’re planning on doing, how long they’re going to be staying, and then enforce that. I don’t think border protection necessarily is a debated issue. We don’t want cartels bringing people and drugs and ammunition and arms into our country. Full stop. I don’t think that that is anything any of us want. So those sorts of enforcement actions absolutely need to be maintained.

“But ICE is supposed to be enforcing immigration law, which is civil law, not criminal law. The fact that they are carrying guns, wearing masks, not identified. It is antithetical to what civil law enforcement should be, and that needs to be entirely dismantled and brought back to what it really should be.”

Dexter on the repeal of the endangerment finding, which is the underpinning for addressing climate change

“The endangerment finding is basically saying that these greenhouse gases that were named in this settlement impact people’s health. They endanger their health. And based upon that, we can regulate greenhouse gas emissions, even though it’s not the particulate matter, soot, that used to be what was regulated. Taking that away eliminates most of the enforcement that we can have on industry, polluters across this nation. It is the largest sweeping undermining of environmental protection law that has ever happened in this country.

“We know the excess health implications of air quality diminishing is exponential. Like people don’t understand when they’re breathing something in and they can smell it, or they can taste it, or it makes them hoarse, that is getting into their lungs and causing harm. And a lot of times that harm builds up over time without you ever knowing it until you’re showing up with asthma or COPD or other heart and lung disease.

“There’s also very quick impacts. There’s a wildfire and people are breathing in the particulate matter. We know that strokes, heart attacks, cancer over the longer term, but immediate harm is done. So, each and every one of us should be pushing back on this. This is something that, frankly, I went to Congress to fight for. I’m a pulmonologist. I literally am taking care or have taken care of people’s lungs throughout my life, with the understanding that the government is doing everything they can to protect their health, and that starts with air and water quality.”

Rep. Maxine Dexter, D-Portland, spoke to OPB’s “Think Out Loud.” To hear the full interview, click the play button below.

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2026/02/13/maxine-dexter-immigration-policy-detention-climate-policy/