'A No-Brainer': Sydney Kamlager Dove Demands Amendment To Block ICE Funds Being Used To Deport Citizens

Forbes Breaking News

During a House Judiciary Committee markup hearing, Rep. Sydney Kamlager Dove (D-CA) spoke in support of an amendment to Republicans' reconciliation package that would ensure funds for ICE are not used on U.S. citizens.

Transcript

00:00appreciate you. Wow, this seems like such a no-brainer. None of the funds made available

00:07by this subtitle may be used by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to detain or deport

00:14a U.S. citizen. And I was sitting here thinking, good Lord, Republicans must be in some kind

00:21of diabolical paralysis if they are unwilling to stand up for the Constitution for Americans

00:31by not supporting this bill. And then I had to read it again. I said, maybe I'm missing something

00:38because, you know, I'm from California. But I was like, well, wow, deport to where? Because like,

00:44if you're an American, you're going to deport an American to where? What the heck? Because I can't

00:54say what I'm really thinking. I'm so confused. And then I'm like, well, then who do you stand for?

01:01Do you only stand for Trump? Like, what do you stand for? Because if you're not standing up for

01:07the Constitution, which, yo, is also to protect you. You know, like, I don't agree with you most

01:16of the time I am awake and half the time I'm asleep, but I still believe you have rights.

01:24So, like, if you don't even support this language, who do you stand for? Because, you know, I guess

01:31what you're saying is that Americans have no rights. You have no rights. And the only right you have

01:37is to obey Trump. The only right you have is to be silent and complicit in whatever comes out of

01:47this administration. But you don't have a right to your rights. You don't have a right to your civil

01:52liberties. You don't have a right to any freedoms. You don't even have a right to stand up and speak

01:58out. And you, as an American, could be deported. But I just don't know to where.

02:05And, you know, the ranking member said that he talked to Republicans who said, well, you know,

02:13this is a popular thing, you know, for Republicans, this immigration thing. And it's not.

02:21You know, 78% of Americans say they want a president who obeys the law. 88% of Americans say they want a

02:29president to certainly obey the law if the courts tell the president to obey the law. We are, we are,

02:38we have opened the door. We have walked back into babies in cages to our neighbors, you know,

02:44our soccer teammates, our neighborhood store owners being deported. We have seen babies in their underwear

02:52being strip searched by people who are like, oh, sorry, my bad, wrong address. But I'm still

03:02dehumanizing you, taking away all your stuff and taking away your rights and liberties. I mean,

03:09this, this little sheet of paper just says, please follow the law and give an American citizen their

03:15rights, which you can still debate in court. But the premise is they have some. So I'm just so

03:24bizarrely confused. And then I'm thinking to myself, well, this, so then if you're going to,

03:28if you are going to not support this, then like what happens when an American, one of your constituents,

03:36one of your neighbors, heck, a family member goes overseas and gets snatched. You're not going to

03:43fight to bring them home. I don't know what could be like on your laptop or in your book or whatever

03:54right now that has got you so hypnotized that you would not engage in this conversation with your

04:01colleagues and find a way to stand up for the constitution and the rights of Americans, even

04:08Americans that you might not agree with or don't like, or don't look like, or haven't met. Have

04:15you met every single representative? I mean, every single constituent that you represent in your

04:19district? God bless you if you have. But even if you haven't, you still have to represent them.

04:25So if they're in trouble and they call you, you're supposed to help them. If you don't support this,

04:30you're saying, if you call me, I'm not going to help you. What kind of representative are you?

04:35Shame, shame, shame. Game of Thrones, shame. With that, I yield back.

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