Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) spoke at a rally in Washington, D.C. against ICE raids targeting immigrant workers.
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00:00Thank you Jaime! Thank you Jaime, thank you SCIU, thank you labor movement for
00:12always standing up for workers, for immigrants, for our democracy. I have one
00:20word for you and I yes I'm here as the ranking member of the immigration
00:23subcommittee but I am also here as a naturalized citizen and a proud
00:27immigrant doing immigrant rights in the streets for 20 years before I have one
00:37word for you today enough enough of these mass ice raids that are sweeping up
00:43innocent people of every legal status tearing apart families and our
00:49communities do you say enough and the arrests of community members and leaders
00:56like the incredible SCIU president David Huerta David is a champion of civil
01:05rights he is somebody who was simply standing up peacefully for justice
01:12someone who is one of the best of our country's labor movement free him
01:18immediately enough of the undermining of due process the blocking of access to
01:29legal counsel for the hundreds of people immigrants who were picked up in LA on
01:34Friday don't forget that due process is something that everybody in this country
01:41gets despite your legal status that's right this is there there are there are plenty of places in the
01:50Constitution where it says citizen the due process clause is not one of them it says
01:57person every person has access to due process and the illegal blocking of members of
02:05Congress who have gone to conduct their authority authority to actually have
02:11oversight over these ICE detention centers they are prisons we have the
02:18authority and the responsibility to conduct oversight and this weekend members of
02:23Congress that represent the LA area we're at the detention center in LA and
02:28then at Atlanta and they were denied access to those facilities
02:35and Donald Trump calling out the National Guard unconstitutionally illegally without
02:43the governor's authorized approval as Jaime said that's something that has not
02:49happened since 1965 and it's hard to imagine that this time the National Guard
02:55were sent out to attack protesters that were exercising their constitutional
03:01obligation now I want to say something to you it is actually in the interest of
03:06all American people to stand up for these rights they know they know that
03:13dividing us is what will make them strong and they know that when we are united
03:20nobody can divide us they want to they want to distract you from their power grab for
03:32authoritarian power on the backs of working people they want to distract you
03:38from the fact that they are trying to strip people of health care and make
03:42Americans poorer and sicker all so they can give a five trillion dollar tax break to the wealthiest
03:48billionaires we say not and all of the violence and the escalation is core to the Trump
03:59administration's authoritarian playbook as we see people exercising their
04:04constitutional rights to peacefully use their voices to speak out against this
04:10injustice they are being met with tear gas and rubber bullets from this
04:15unconstitutional unlawful administration
04:19and look even the LA Police Department said that the protests were peaceful before Trump rolled in
04:29with military tanks on the streets of Los Angeles federal law enforcement from DHS ice HSI and the FBI all to
04:44crack down on peaceful protesters who were standing up for immigrant workers who
04:49are standing up for the economy of this country who are standing up for our
04:53communities for our families and saying don't tear us apart we are going to stand
04:58united against this authoritarian power grab I have been working on immigration reform with my
05:08friend Jaime with SCIU with all these incredible labor unions for decades we all know that the
05:15immigration system is broken and that the American people want a fair humane system that actually allows
05:25people to be able to work allows people to be with their families allows people to have the rights that
05:32they deserve for keeping our country going for doing the work that they are doing every single day and
05:39instead we are villainizing and demonizing them under this president and that has to stop
05:50David Huerta David Huerta said it best he said we all collectively have to object to this madness because
06:01this is not justice this is injustice so today we are here to say free David Huerta
06:12we are here to say free the immigrants that have been arrested
06:19we are here to say end the ice raids
06:24we are here to say stand up for our protected constitutional rights to free speech
06:31that's right that's right to due process to a democracy that works for all of us thank you so
06:38much everybody let's keep this up because the people united will never be divided the people united
06:46will never be defeated
07:03that's right