According to a press release from Rep. Ayanna Pressley, the congresswoman is criticizing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) actions after they detained a 13-year-old boy in Everett and transferred him to a facility in Virginia without notifying his family, legal counsel, or the courts. Pressley calls this case a stark example of the dangers of criminalizing youth rather than investing in supports that keep communities safe.

In her statement, Pressley describes the child, a 7th grader recovering from a broken foot, as having been subjected to inhumane conditions, including a lack of adequate nutrition and being forced to sleep on a concrete floor with an aluminum blanket. She demands adherence to due process, protection of constitutionally guaranteed rights, and the boy’s immediate return home, “No child should be snatched from their home and isolated from loved ones without oversight.”

Earlier this year, she visited a detention center in Louisiana to meet with her constituent Rümeysa Öztürk, who was being held under conditions Pressley described as retaliatory and unjust. She also opposed a Republican-led bill that would allow children as young as 14 to be tried in adult courts, urging instead investment in trauma-informed, community-based public safety programs. 

Pressley is championing the People’s Justice Guarantee, a decarceration resolution she helped develop, which calls for ending the prosecution of minors in adult courts and preventing youth from being housed in adult facilities. The proposal envisions rehabilitation in supportive environments closer to home, not locked cells.

Additionally, Pressley is extending her focus on protecting vulnerable communities to the student loan crisis. In a new effort, led with Senator Elizabeth Warren and backed by 70 members of Congress, she warns of a looming “default cliff” that could push millions of borrowers into financial disaster. Pressley says that this is not just a policy failure but a moral one, especially as low-income, Black and brown borrowers are hit the hardest.

Lawmakers are urging the administration to clear the massive backlog of income-driven repayment applications, stop decisions that raise costs, create interest-free protections for struggling borrowers, pause forced collections, and launch strong outreach to at-risk households. Pressley has long championed student debt relief and has helped secure billions in cancellation for public service workers. She continues to reintroduce legislation to stop wage garnishment and protect borrowers from predatory servicers. For Pressley, economic justice is inseparable from racial justice, and preventing mass default is essential to protecting working families.