Norma Torres is the only member of Congress born in Central America (Guatemala). Arriving in the U.S. at age five after her mother’s death, she has become the House's leading voice on Central American policy. She is famous for her high-profile diplomatic feuds with authoritarian leaders, most notably El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele, who has attacked her on social media for her relentless exposure of corruption in the region.
She represents California’s 35th District, located in the Inland Empire. It includes Pomona, Ontario, Chino, and Fontana. This area is the "Logistics Capital of America," home to the massive warehouses and distribution centers that handle goods coming from the Ports of LA and Long Beach, creating a unique tension between job creation and poor air quality.
Torres’ political origin story is one of the most visceral in Congress: she was a 911 dispatcher for the LAPD for 17 years. Her career path changed forever after a tragic call where a young girl was murdered by her uncle while Torres was on the line; the girl had waited 20 minutes for a bilingual operator. Torres turned her grief into action, leading a union campaign to require bilingual staffing at dispatch centers.
As a senior member of the Appropriations Committee, she wields the "power of the purse" over two critical areas: Transportation (vital for her district's infrastructure) and State and Foreign Operations (vital for her foreign policy goals). In the 119th Congress, she has used this seat to block funding for foreign governments that dismantle anti-corruption task forces.
She is the lead sponsor of the 911 SAVES Act, a bill to reclassify 911 dispatchers from "clerical workers" to "first responders." She argues that dispatchers suffer from PTSD at rates similar to police and fire personnel and deserve the same mental health benefits and retirement protections.
"She listened to a murder unfold over the phone because there weren't enough bilingual dispatchers. Norma Torres quit her job, ran for office, and fixed the system. She is the 911 operator who hung up and went to Washington."
Norma Torres: The Voice on the Line
Norma Torres’ path to power began with a headset. For nearly two decades, she worked the graveyard shift as a 911 dispatcher for the Los Angeles Police Department. It was a grueling, high-stress job that taught her to stay calm in chaos, but one call broke her. A young girl named Yahida called 911 screaming that her uncle was going to kill her. Because the system lacked sufficient Spanish-speaking operators, Yahida had waited on hold for 20 minutes. By the time Torres connected, it was too late. She heard the shots fired.
Enraged by the bureaucratic failure that cost a child her life, Torres became a union organizer. She lobbied the LA City Council to mandate bilingual pay and staffing minimums for emergency services. She realized then that if she wanted to save lives, she had to be the one making the rules. She ran for Mayor of Pomona, then State Assembly, and finally Congress in 2014.
In Washington, Torres is a unique figure: a blue-collar immigrant with a specialized focus on national security and corruption. As the founder of the Central America Caucus, she argues that the "root cause" of migration isn't poverty alone, but the theft of state resources by corrupt elites. She has released lists of corrupt officials in the "Northern Triangle" (Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador), earning her death threats and insults from foreign heads of state. When El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele urged voters in her district to vote her out, Torres responded by winning re-election comfortably.
Locally, she represents the Inland Empire, a region defined by blue-collar grit and global commerce. Her district is the engine room of the American supply chain. While she supports the jobs provided by the logistics industry, she is a fierce criti...
