During a House Judiciary Committee hearing prior to the Congressional recess, Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA) slammed the Trump Administration for actions during the current immigration crackdown.
00:05We've got a lot of people out here in the audience,
00:08and if you came in support, to show your support for Representative LaMonica McIver,
00:13would you stand up, please?
00:19Okay.
00:20That looks like around 60 folks.
00:23Thank you all for coming, and you may be seated.
00:26And let the record reflect, Mr. Chairman, the vast number of people who came in support of Representative LaMonica McIver.
00:35Without objection.
00:36The Trump administration has weaponized justice, using the Department of Injustice to carry forward an assault on liberty.
00:45Trump has threatened and intimidated a number of lawyers and powerful law firms into submission.
00:51He has put powerful institutions of higher learning under his thumb.
00:56And he has forced powerful media companies to bow down and kiss his ring.
01:03Now he's threatening and trying to intimidate his adversaries in elective office.
01:10Last month, Trump's Department of Injustice arrested a female judge doing her job at the courthouse in Milwaukee.
01:17They then arrested the mayor of Newark in the same city that he leads.
01:23And now, yesterday, they have filed charges against a member of the House of Representatives.
01:30And today, we are engaged in a pre-planned hearing entitled, quote,
01:35Examining threats to ICE operations, end quote, while producing a highly prejudicial, expertly edited video published to taint the jury pool and shape a false narrative on Representative McIver's actions.
01:52MAGA Republicans are using this hearing to justify the charges against her.
01:57And in support of the charges, they publish more video that demonizes people being held in private, for-profit ICE detention facilities.
02:08What is really happening is that Trump and his MAGA enablers are misusing their positions of power to prosecute people who refuse to lay down and get run over as they assault our liberties.
02:22And they are trying to intimidate members of Congress from performing our duties.
02:27That's why we are really here today.
02:30Last night, Trump's personal attorney, who he appointed to be interim United States Attorney for New Jersey,
02:38blatantly abused her authority to target a sitting congresswoman who had been roughed up by armed, mask-wearing ICE agents.
02:49Males.
02:49This interim U.S. attorney targeted my colleague just because Representative McIver had the audacity to do her job rather than taking the Trump administration's word that everything was fine.
03:05Members of Congress have the legal authority to visit ICE facilities so that we can perform oversight.
03:11It's one of the things we are elected to do.
03:14But this administration has become increasingly authoritarian and will not tolerate anyone asking questions.
03:22That's why Trump and my Republican colleagues call for the impeachment of any judge who rules against this administration.
03:30It is why the Trump administration targets students who expressed dissent.
03:37And it's why Trump muzzled the big law firms that previously stood up for civil liberties and have now agreed to stay quiet and do his bidding.
03:47The Trump administration continues to abandon the Constitution and the Department of Justice continues to politicize the pursuit of justice.
03:55They've come after judges, mayors, members of Congress, and our neighbors and our communities.
04:02Who's next? Is it you?
04:06Representative McIver has her legal rights.
04:11They've threatened her.
04:12And in threatening her, they threaten us.
04:15No one is safe once you can be targeted just for asking questions and trying to ensure that the government is following the law.
04:22Now, Mr. Hauser, right now our MAGA Republicans are trying to pass a massive spending bill that would increase the national debt by $3.3 trillion
04:31and give ICE a staggering $73 billion to build more private, for-profit detention facilities.
04:39Can you please explain how this massive cash infusion and especially the $45 billion expansion of immigration detention is neither wise, strategic, or safe?
04:55Sir, it clearly shows the need for oversight as they expand detention.
05:01You're going to outsize the need of what ICE actually needs operationally.
05:05Additionally, it will take deportation officers off the streets and now will be in these facilities, so actually making us less safe.
05:14Additionally, the idea that you're going to detain 100,000 to 150,000 people and spend $45 billion or $70 billion to do it,
05:23if you took that same money and just put it to fix the broken immigration system now,
05:28you could hire thousands of individuals that could be adjudicating cases, immigration judges, resettlement services.
05:36Sir, quite frankly, you could give a couple billion dollars to a country to take some of the migrants back themselves and they would go.
05:41The idea that you're going to put this into detention and that will fix the system is a bit absurd.
05:46Well, they want the billions to go into their political supporters' pocketbooks.
