- today
The House of Representatives held debate on H. Res. 516 -- "Condemning the violent June 2025 riots in Los Angeles, California."
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00:00For what purpose does the gentleman from California, Mr. Kiley, seek recognition?
00:04Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 530, I call up House Resolution 516 and ask
00:12for its immediate consideration in the House.
00:14The clerk will report the title of the resolution.
00:17House Resolution 516, Resolution Condemning the Violent June 2025 Riots in Los Angeles,
00:24California.
00:25Pursuant to House Resolution 530, the resolution is considered red.
00:28The resolution shall be debatable for one hour, equally divided and controlled by the chair
00:34and ranking minority member of the Committee on Judiciary or their respective designees.
00:39The gentleman from California, Mr. Kiley, and the gentleman from Maryland, Mr. Raskin, each
00:43will control 30 minutes.
00:45The chair recognizes the gentleman from California, Mr. Kiley.
00:48Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days in which
00:52to revise and extend their remarks and to insert extraneous material on House Resolution 516.
00:56Without objection.
00:58I yield myself such time as I may consume.
01:01The gentleman is recognized.
01:02A couple weeks ago, the entire world witnessed horrifying scenes out of Los Angeles.
01:10Molotov cocktails and bricks being thrown at officers.
01:14Waymo cars being lit on fire.
01:17American flags being burned.
01:20Always being blocked.
01:22Today, we will stand as a House to condemn these acts of violence and to condemn the irresponsible
01:31politicians who refused to adequately address them.
01:35I think it's important to understand from the beginning the events leading to these horrific scenes.
01:43We should first recognize that ICE was undertaking operations in Los Angeles that have been very
01:51standard across administrations, Democrat or Republican.
01:56President Obama, after all, carried out millions of deportations.
02:01And the priority has always been to focus on those who have a criminal record and who pose a
02:07risk to the public.
02:09That is precisely what ICE was doing in Los Angeles.
02:12Among those targeted were murderers, pedophiles, and drug traffickers.
02:18It should also be recognized that one of the reasons that some of these people had to be sought out in
02:27the community is that the city of Los Angeles and the state of California have chosen to enact
02:34sanctuary policies that explicitly forbid ICE from taking custody of these dangerous individuals in
02:44the safest and least disruptive setting, in a custodial setting, that is in jails.
02:49That is the explicit purpose of our sanctuary laws.
02:55So despite these facts, as these operations were being carried out in a standard and targeted way in Los Angeles,
03:04you had certain politicians who engaged in inflammatory rhetoric, and you then had individuals gather to
03:12disrupt the activities of ICE and our federal officers, and then you saw these extreme and
03:19horrifying acts of violence.
03:22Now, I want to be very clear.
03:24I will defend in any way that I can the right to assemble and protest, regardless of the content of what the
03:33protesters are advocating.
03:35This is foundational, it is fundamental, to the American system of government.
03:42But violence, violence is another matter entirely.
03:47This is not just a matter of protest crossing a line.
03:50Violence is the antithesis of protest.
03:54It seeks to shut down the process of deliberation, argument, and debate.
04:01It seeks to exalt force over reason.
04:05It is an abandonment of the American experiment of self-government.
04:12And by the way, this is especially true when the very purpose of the violence is to impede
04:21the policies of a duly elected president from being carried out.
04:27It is to say that a violent agitator should be able to overthrow, through force, the will of
04:35a democratic majority that has been established through a democratic, free, and fair election.
04:45That is what we bore witness to in Los Angeles.
04:49And yet, instead of doing everything possible to restore order, to protect the citizens of
04:57Los Angeles, to protect our law enforcement officers, and our federal officers, you saw
05:03certain irresponsible, vainglorious politicians in California decide that this was their star-making
05:12moment, where they would egg on the violent agitators.
05:18Where they would try to pick a fight in every way they could with the president, even going
05:23so far as to file a frivolous lawsuit that was thrown out unanimously by the Ninth Circuit.
05:31And worst of all, worst of all, these politicians decided to place the blame for the violence
05:40on our incredible National Guard members, somehow saying it was their presence there that caused
05:46it.
05:48This is deeply offensive, and our National Guard members are owed an apology.
05:55So today, I hope that we can stand together, Republicans and Democrats, in making it very
06:02clear that protest and assembly are fundamental rights in this country, and that acts of violence
06:10are a grave threat to those rights.
06:14Specifically, this resolution recognizes the right to assemble and protest peacefully, condemns
06:20unequivocally the violence perpetrated against federal, state, and local law enforcement, calls
06:25on local and state elected leadership to work with the federal government to end the violent
06:31riots and restore peace, and expresses gratitude to law enforcement officers, including the Los
06:37Angeles Police Department, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, California Highway Patrol,
06:42Orange County Sheriff's Department, and other local, state, and federal law enforcement
06:47agencies, including the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement for keeping our communities
06:52safe in the face of danger.
06:54I reserve the balance of my time.
06:56The gentleman reserves.
06:57The gentleman from Maryland is recognized.
06:59Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker.
07:00I yield as much time as she might consume to the chair of the California Democratic Delegation,
07:07Ms. Lofgren, who leads the 45 Democrats in the California Delegation.
07:13The gentlelady from California is recognized.
07:16Mr. Speaker, I oppose the Kim Resolution.
07:20Now, had it just condemned violence and thanked the National Guard and the Marines who did not
07:30ask for this assignment, I think we'd all be on board.
07:33Instead, the resolution really is engaging in partisan games with misleading and inflammatory
07:41provisions.
07:42You know, Trump said he was going to go arrest and deport violent criminals.
07:48People are okay with that.
07:50Instead, armed, masked ICE agents, some refusing to identify themselves aggressively, and in some
07:58cases even violently, took down day workers at Home Depot, busboys, gardeners, a union leader,
08:07and regular people in Los Angeles objected to that, and as the First Amendment provides, they
08:15peacefully protested against it.
08:17Unfortunately, there were some hooligans and rowdies who infiltrated that group, and they
08:25committed violent acts and vandalism, and for that, they should be prosecuted.
08:32They should be brought to justice and condemned, which we do.
08:38However, the resolution really creates a misleading picture of what happened.
08:46On the first page, it says, whereas these protests quickly escalated into violent riots across
08:53Los Angeles were acts of arson, widespread looting, property destruction, lighting streets on fire.
09:01Well, the fact is that these demonstrations were largely confined to about a 10-block area of downtown Los Angeles.
09:14The police, LAPD, had the situation under control, and there's an elaborate system of mutual aid in California.
09:25Had they needed additional forces, it was readily available under mutual aid.
09:31I would like to point out to my colleagues on the other side of the aisle, in case they need a reminder, L.A. County is 4,060 miles, square miles, not the 10 blocks.
09:43So, when President Trump deployed the Marines and National Guard in L.A., it was not at the request of local officials, the chief of police or the governor.
09:55It was unprecedented, unnecessary, and a clear attempt to take over the state's law enforcement authority.
10:03In fact, I think it did aggravate tensions in the area.
10:08Now, the National Guard remains in Los Angeles to this day.
10:13They really have nothing to do.
10:16We heard a report from the former commander that less than 20 percent are doing anything,
10:22and they've been taken away from jobs where they were needed.
10:25For example, helping in efforts to prevent forest fire prevention and the like.
10:31You know, as the elected chair of the California Democrat delegation, I was proud to join my colleague Ms. Baragon in introducing a resolution that, unlike this one, is based in fact.
10:46Our resolution condemns the president's authoritarian response to First Amendment expressions of dissent.
10:53And unlike the Kim resolution, it expresses support for law enforcement and for the National Guard and for the Marines, and it condemns violence by those who committed it.
11:06Now, why is this important?
11:09You know, in the resolution, it's so partisan.
11:13It says, whereas California's leadership has prioritized protecting illegal immigrants and violent individuals over United States citizens.
11:22That is absurd.
11:23That is insulting to our elected officials, but it's right in keeping with what the president has said.
11:30He has indicated publicly he intends to target cities and states that are democratically elected, that have Democrats elected in government.
11:40What a strange thing to say.
11:43The executive order that nationalized the California National Guard applies to anywhere in the United States.
11:52It's not just L.A., it's not just California.
11:54I think this resolution, really, and false as it is, is serving as a predicate, as a foundation for the use, for the military to be used in places all over the United States at any pretext, any pretext, so that the military can go in and assume civilian authority away from those who are democratically elected.
12:20That's why it's important that we do not approve this resolution with its false whereases, that we do not participate in a scheme to replace the democratically elected officials in cities and counties and states across the United States.
12:40I'll just end with this.
12:41Who should we be more concerned about?
12:44What should we be more afraid of, the gardeners that are being arrested by ICE, the busboys, the farm workers, or the concept that the administration may be taking the steps to replace, with the military, civil authority that has been duly elected around the United States?
13:09With that, Mr. Raskin, I yield back.
13:14The gentleman from California is recognized.
13:19Just to make sure that we're dealing with the facts as they actually occurred.
13:24The assertion that the LAPD had the situation under control, we all saw otherwise on our television sets.
13:31And the LAPD chief himself said that every person in Los Angeles should be disgusted by what occurred.
13:37The governor has himself in the past recognized the virtue of using the National Guard when you had situations that required reinforcement.
13:47This notion that somehow the president was taking over the state's law enforcement authority, the Ninth Circuit said otherwise unanimously.
13:54Even a Biden appointed judge saying this was a duly, the president was exercising his authority to prevent the disruption of the enforcement of federal law.
14:03As to this notion that the violence was largely confined to downtown LA, I can't agree with the assertion that it's somehow less objectionable to have violence occur within a concentrated area than on a more diffused basis.
14:15And finally, this disparagement of our ICE officers for wearing masks.
14:20I think that this is outrageous.
14:22We have seen threats against our ICE officers absolutely skyrocket.
14:27And it's very ironic for folks that had no problem forcing two year olds to wear masks all day in defiance of even the World Health Organization's guidelines are now somehow objecting to federal officers who feel the need to do this in order to protect themselves and their family.
14:45I yield four minutes to the representative from California, Ms. Kim.
14:49The gentlelady from California is recognized.
14:51Thank you, Representative Kylie for yielding.
14:54I rise in strong support of House Resolution 516 to condemn the violent riots in Los Angeles this month.
15:03And I want to thank our brave law enforcement officers.
15:07And I appreciate the heated debate and the conversation.
15:11And I want to thank my colleague, Representative Kylie, for leading the groundwork for explaining what led to the events that occurred last month.
15:20In Los Angeles, which explains that the federal agents were conducting immigration enforcement according to the law.
15:28Mr. Speaker, protecting public safety should not be controversial.
15:34This resolution, therefore, we made it very simple.
15:38It recognizes the right to assemble and protest peacefully.
15:43And it condemns unequivocally the violence perpetrated against federal, state, and local law enforcement.
15:52It calls on local and state elected leadership to work with the federal government and restore peace.
15:59And it expresses gratitude to our local, state, and federal law enforcement officers for bravely keeping our communities safe in the face of danger.
16:10That's what this is about.
16:13Do you stand with our law enforcement officers working to keep our communities safe and have the common sense to call out rioters who commit vandalism, violence, property damage, and other crimes in our streets?
16:29Mr. Speaker, like others in the chamber, and many across this country, I am an immigrant who came here legally in pursuit of the opportunities that this country provides.
16:44I am proud to be an American, and I am paying it forward to keep the American dream alive for my children and grandchildren.
16:53Peaceful protests are a constitutional right.
16:57We all cherish that.
16:59And our communities should not be living in fear.
17:03But peaceful protests and freedom assembly gave way to chaos in Los Angeles we witnessed a few weeks ago.
17:11We saw acts of arson, looting, property destruction, vandalism, blocking streets and highways, lighting cars on fire, shooting fireworks, throwing rocks at law enforcement vehicles, and even assaulting federal and local police officers.
17:30As a result, we saw more than 500 rioters were arrested, and at least a dozen LAPD officers were injured.
17:40Local and state leadership clearly could not contain the chaos.
17:46The riots have cost at least $30 million to pay overtime and repair property damages to city buildings.
17:55This doesn't include the small businesses and other private entities whose businesses fell victim to the destruction.
18:04We also know that the riots were enabled by California's soft-owned crime policies that have allowed for lawlessness and endangered public safety.
18:16Again, this resolution recognizes the right to assemble and protest peacefully, condemns the violence against law enforcement, and calls on local and state officers to work with the federal government to restore peace, and we want to thank our law enforcement.
18:37This is not controversial.
18:40Thank you, and I yield back.
18:42The gentlelady yields back to the gentleman from California, the gentleman reserves.
18:46The gentleman from Maryland is recognized.
18:49Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
18:50I'm now happy to yield three minutes to the distinguished gentleman from California, Representative Correa.
18:57The gentleman from California is recognized.
18:59Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
19:00I ask, what happened?
19:03My hometown, Santa Ana, California, predominantly Hispanic Latino.
19:09Factory workers live there.
19:11Remember, we're the biggest manufacturing state in the union.
19:14Near-shoring.
19:15Guess where it's happening?
19:17Largest ag state in the union.
19:19A lot of farm workers in my district.
19:22What happened?
19:24One day, we're going about our business in Santa Ana, Orange County.
19:29Masked federal agents start going into our neighborhoods.
19:34Picking up hard-working neighbors.
19:37Oh, yeah, you bet.
19:38People were concerned, scared, and nervous.
19:41A lot of people expressed their First Amendment right.
19:45We got the National Guard.
19:48Sheriff Don Barnes, Orange County Sheriff Don Barnes,
19:53did not call for the National Guard.
19:57Local police chiefs did not call for the National Guard.
20:02We get the National Guard.
20:05You know, President Trump promised to deport criminals,
20:09those with deportation orders,
20:11those here less than two years.
20:13But now, it's hard workers, people that pay taxes,
20:18that are being picked up.
20:20Like 60% of those being picked up are now people without criminal records.
20:25Orange County, we didn't have any violence.
20:31We had masked officers coming into our neighborhoods.
20:36And you know, I bet President Trump would want to know what's going on on Main Street.
20:43One of the constituents that just got picked up, I talked about a minute ago.
20:49Narciso Barranco.
20:5125 years in the U.S.
20:53A gardener.
20:54A father of three Marines.
20:57We make movies of people like this.
21:00This gentleman is a hero.
21:02His family's a hero.
21:04Instead, he's in a nice holding facility in Los Angeles.
21:09But I'm hearing more stories coming.
21:12More Barranco type families being broken up.
21:16Military families being separated by their loved ones by ICE.
21:21I do not believe President Trump would want his legacy to be that he deported military family members like Mr. Barranco.
21:32Look, common sense here.
21:36This resolution is not prime time for a vote.
21:40A lot of inaccuracies.
21:42I'm going to ask my colleagues to vote no on this measure.
21:45Mr. Chairman, Speaker, I yield.
21:48The gentleman from California yields back to the gentleman from Maryland.
21:52Mr. Speaker, I'm moved by the comments of the distinguished gentleman from California.
21:59And I wonder what our colleagues think the value is other than of a purely political nature to a resolution that purports to be honoring law enforcement when it's set up on a completely partisan basis.
22:16I wonder what the value of that is.
22:18I especially wonder about what the value of that is when the majority doesn't even stand by actual law when it comes to honoring law enforcement.
22:26Because this body on March 15th, 2022, passed a resolution to put up a plaque, a simple plaque to honor the noble and brave police officers who battled for four or five hours to stop a violent riot and insurrection unleashed against this chamber and against the Senate in an attempt to overthrow a presidential election.
22:54And so we voted to erect a plaque in their honor.
22:59That was on March 15th, 2022.
23:01It was supposed to have been put up on March 15th, 2023.
23:05We're now more than two years overdue in honoring those police officers.
23:09140 of whom were wounded, injured, disfigured, and many of them permanently disabled.
23:20And several lost their lives in the days to follow that atrocity attack on this body.
23:26There's a law which says put up the plaque and Speaker Johnson and the majority will not put the plaque up, which is why when you walk in the House office buildings now everywhere, there are poster replicas of that plaque being put up.
23:38Now they want to pass a resolution deploring violence that took place thousands of miles away from here.
23:47And it's just a resolution, a horatory resolution.
23:49They can't even get bipartisan support because, of course, they've got to set it up on a polemical partisan basis instead.
23:56Instead, what is the utility of that resolution when they won't even follow an actual law to honor police officers who put themselves between us and a bloodthirsty mob?
24:09And that's not a partisan point because the Republicans denounced it at that time as terrorism, as an attack on this institution, as intolerable, as unacceptable.
24:20And I'm happy to share with my colleague, who I know wasn't in Congress at the time, all of the statements made by Republican leaders at that time begging Donald Trump to send in the National Guard, which he controlled because of the District of Columbia National Guard.
24:38And he didn't do it. He sat and he watched it eating hamburgers or whatever in the White House on TV, ignoring all of the appeals to send the National Guard to come and defend Republican and Democratic members of Congress.
24:53And now we've got a law which has put the plaque up in honor of these officers and they can't do it, but they want to bring a totally partisan resolution to the floor, deploring violence thousands of miles away.
25:06And you've got members of Congress from California saying that they're not capturing what actually happened there.
25:12But no, it's got to be another opportunity for partisan division.
25:16Why?
25:18Why can't we honor law enforcement together and follow through on our word? I'll reserve.
25:24The gentleman reserves. The gentleman from California is recognized.
25:29As to the comments of my colleague from California, he set forth his view as to what the priority and the limitations ought to be when it comes to deportation policy.
25:38And he is, of course, acting appropriately in doing so.
25:42That is his his right and his prerogative as a member of Congress, as it is for any citizen.
25:49This resolution does not have anything to do with the merits of his view.
25:54This resolution simply states that one should not use violence in order to advance that view.
26:00I would hope that this should be a principle we should be able to be agree on on a bipartisan basis.
26:05And as to my colleague from Maryland's claim that this resolution is somehow set up in a partisan way, nothing could be further from the truth.
26:15The resolution simply condemns acts of violence.
26:18We are opposed to sanctuary policies.
26:20We're opposed to putting a target on the back of our federal officers and, frankly, to defunding the police.
26:26And it's not our fault that those who have allowed this violence, who have promoted sanctuary policies, who have put a target on the back of our officers, who have called for the defunding the police, all happen to belong to one party.
26:39I yield three minutes to my colleague from California, Mr. McClintock.
26:42The gentleman from California is recognized.
26:44Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
26:45You know, many Democrats in this House have called the L.A. riots peaceful, even while Americans watched with their own eyes as marauding mobs under foreign flags set cars on fire, threw concrete blocks at police, terrorized motorists, and vandalized and looted local shops.
27:06The Democrat Vice Mayor of Cudahy has called on criminal street gangs to attack federal law enforcement.
27:13The Democrat Mayor of Los Angeles said that for the riots to stop, the federal government had to stop enforcing federal immigration law.
27:22You just heard the same sentiment expressed on this floor a few minutes ago.
27:26The Democrat Newsom administration has paid millions of taxpayer dollars to one of the principal organizers of these riots.
27:36I have news for the Democrats.
27:40The doctrine of nullification died with the Confederacy.
27:44States are not permitted to obstruct the enforcement of federal law.
27:49In a humiliating slapdown of Mr. Newsom, even the notoriously liberal Ninth Circuit Court ruled that the president has clear authority to federalize the National Guard to restore order whenever state or local officials are derelict in their duty to protect the public and enforcement.
28:09Now, remember how all this started.
28:13ICE agents attempted to execute court-ordered warrants on criminal illegal aliens.
28:20When a mob intervened, ICE called for local law enforcement.
28:25The mayor reportedly stopped them from responding, and the governor did nothing.
28:30Now, we saw during the George Floyd riots what happens when leftist officials refused to counter violent mobs.
28:39American cities aflame, billions of dollars of damage, and 19 people killed.
28:46This resolution condemns the violence, but there is something far more sinister afoot that strikes at the very foundation of a constitutional republic.
28:58The rule of law.
29:00As Abraham Lincoln told the Democrats long ago, there is no grievance that is a fit object of redress by mob law.
29:09And this generation of Americans is taking note.
29:13I yield back.
29:14The gentleman from California yields back to the gentleman from California.
29:18I reserve.
29:19The gentleman from California reserves.
29:20The gentleman from Maryland is recognized.
29:22Well, thank you, Mr. Speaker.
29:23I'm pleased to hear my colleague invoke Abraham Lincoln in the rejection of disunion, secession, and violent attack on the federal government.
29:33Neither of my colleagues who's on the floor has said a word explaining why they won't put the plaque up to honor hundreds and hundreds of police officers on the Capitol Police Force,
29:43on the Metropolitan Police Department and the Montgomery County Police throughout the region who came to defend us.
29:49Why won't they put the plaque up if they're really such big supporters of the police?
29:54That's a law.
29:55They just want to pass a resolution.
29:57Their resolution, of course, is completely political.
30:00One of their whereas clauses is whereas California's leadership has prioritized protecting illegal immigrants and violent individuals over U.S. citizens.
30:08That's just defamation of the law enforcement officials in California.
30:15It is defamation against the governor of California, the mayor of Los Angeles, the sheriff in Los Angeles County, the chief of police in L.A.,
30:24all of whom fought to put that violence down when riots broke out.
30:30Something Donald Trump never did when the riots broke out that he incited against us.
30:36And remember, he was impeached by this body for inciting a violent insurrection against us.
30:42So not only did he not do anything to defend us, he was the one who caused the whole chain of events that led to the deaths that took place that day, the violence that took place that day.
30:55And my colleague won't utter a word about it.
30:58He won't say a word about it.
30:59And, you know, so all of the attempt to focus everybody over there is a distraction from the fact that they still to this day are defending what Donald Trump did with January 6th.
31:12And why? Because they also defend his lie that he won the 2020 presidential election, which he lost by more than seven million votes, 306 to 232 in the Electoral College.
31:24So I don't know what the meaning of their totally partisan resolution is when they won't even stand by the law that it was signed into law by the president to put a plaque up, a simple plaque up honoring police officers who fought tooth and nail for hours against the most bloody, vicious, violent insurrectionist mob ever to attack the Capitol of the United States.
31:51I'm going to recognize the distinguished gentlelady from California, Ms. Chu, for two and a half minutes.
31:57The lady from California is recognized.
32:00But before that, the chair would remind the body that members are reminded to refrain from engaging in personalities toward the president.
32:07The lady is recognized.
32:09I rise in opposition to this extremely partisan resolution that seeks to legitimize President Trump's baseless attacks in Los Angeles.
32:19And on our elected leaders, including Governor Newsom and Mayor Bass.
32:24This administration's mass ICE raids by masked agents that will not identify themselves have trampled on our rights and left our community shaken but not defeated.
32:38The president manufactured a crisis in Los Angeles and then blamed our constituents for it.
32:44He induced ICE to terrorize our community, detaining hundreds of hardworking residents at places like Home Depot and car washes, including U.S. citizens like Job Garcia, a doctoral student in my district, the Claremont Graduate University, who was manhandled, thrown to the ground and handcuffed.
33:07And for this, the president called in the National Guard and Marines.
33:12This resolution only gives credence to Trump's dangerous rhetoric.
33:17Instead, we should be considering the resolution introduced by California's Democratic delegation, which condemns anyone engaged in violation of the law of violence or vandalism.
33:33But most importantly, stands up for our constitutional rights to due process and free expression and shows our appreciation to local law enforcement for upholding public safety.
33:47Rather than feed into the president's cruelty, we are standing up for the communities we were elected to represent.
33:56Well, and I think the general lady...
33:58The general lady yields back to the gentleman.
34:00The gentleman is recognized.
34:01Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
34:02I thank the general lady for her excellent point.
34:05And the California delegation has advanced with Ms. Lofkin a truly bipartisan resolution that deplores all violence because the political violence is getting out of control in America.
34:16We just had colleagues in Minnesota who were the subject of assassination attempts and, of course, the former Speaker of the Minnesota House was killed along with her husband.
34:25And a state senator was wounded along with his wife.
34:29So we deplore all the political violence across the board and we defend the right to speak.
34:36And we look for policies from the federal government that will not exacerbate conflict but will reduce conflict.
34:44This resolution, far from being nonpartisan, as my distinguished colleague argues, in fact, attacks the governor of California.
34:51It attacks members of Congress.
34:53It attacks California leadership.
34:55It attacks the mainstream media.
34:57I mean, come on.
34:58We know the difference between what is a partisan gotcha resolution and a resolution that actually attempts to unify people around common values.
35:07I'll reserve.
35:08The gentleman reserves and members for information.
35:12The minority party has 12 minutes left in debate.
35:15The majority party has 15 minutes left in debate.
35:18The gentleman from California is recognized.
35:20Mr. Speaker, this notion that the president manufactured a crisis is simply asking us not to believe our eyes.
35:27You've actually had members of Congress from California who said that there was no violence.
35:32Even though we all saw on television cars being lit on fire, Molotov cocktails and bricks being thrown at officers.
35:40Among many other acts of violence, we had several officers who were injured during the process.
35:46And what did the president do?
35:48He asked our dedicated National Guard members to come in to protect federal property, to protect federal officers.
35:55To say that this somehow was what caused the crisis is not only completely at odds with the facts as we all witnessed them,
36:03but is incredibly offensive to our dedicated National Guard members who went there and have successfully managed to keep the peace.
36:11Now, as to my colleague from Maryland, who has now accused us of defamation with this clause,
36:18whereas California's leadership has prioritized protecting illegal immigrants and violent individuals over United States citizens,
36:25that is simply the very purpose of a sanctuary law, be it California's sanctuary state law or Los Angeles's sanctuary city law.
36:34The entire purpose of these laws, their explicit effect, is to provide special protection for those who have not only come into the country illegally, but have committed crimes.
36:47I'll give you an example of how sanctuary policies work in practice.
36:52We had a case not far from Sacramento, where there was an individual who was in police custody for assaulting a peace officer.
37:00He had been arrested. He was in custody. This was during the Biden administration, by the way.
37:04Ice saw that he was in custody and they asked to take custody of him from the sheriff's office so that he could be deported.
37:11But the sheriff's office had to say, no, sorry, we're not allowed to do that under the sanctuary state law.
37:18The next week, that man murdered his own three daughters as well as their chaperone.
37:24A horrific crime that never would have happened if not for California's sanctuary policies.
37:30And in a similar vein, many of the operations which ICE conducted in a targeted and standard way in L.A.
37:38would have been unnecessary if it were not for a sanctuary policy that forbade them from taking custody of these individuals within a custodial setting.
37:47So I would simply ask my colleague from Maryland, are we to take it from his remarks, that he would support reversing the sanctuary policies that have caused so much harm in California and Los Angeles?
38:00I reserve.
38:02The gentleman from California reserves. The gentleman from Maryland is recognized.
38:05Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My colleague from California talks about defunding the police and he might want to update his talking points because look who's defunding the police.
38:14President Trump and the Republicans are defunding the police. And we know that because we debated it for hours on this floor.
38:22His Doge agents back when Elon Musk was still in town before he got run out of town by somebody.
38:28Doge sent a guy into the Department of Justice who cut out an estimated $500 million in community project funding to police departments across America and victim rights organizations and others receiving those grants.
38:45And they've not been able to explain it. They didn't even know what was happening.
38:48But of course they unleashed Doge on the Department of Justice and hundreds of millions of dollars in state and local law enforcement, victim assistance, rape survivor organization grants.
39:01All of that was cut by them. And of course they are also cutting more than a billion dollars in law enforcement funding in the DOJ appropriation this year.
39:11So we don't need any lectures about defunding the police from people who are actively defunding the police and people who are refusing to follow the law in honoring the police.
39:21And my friend from California refuses to utter a word about that.
39:25Could somebody please explain why they're not following the law and putting a plaque up to honor the officers who came to save our lives?
39:35On January 6th, I'm honored to yield two minutes to the distinguished general lady from California and member of the Judiciary Committee, Ms. Kamlager-Lupp.
39:45The general lady from California is recognized.
39:48Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I rise in fierce opposition to this performative and misleading resolution that reads like a cheap script treatment looking for a second rate director.
40:02HR 516 is not about public safety. It is about fear. It is about scapegoating immigrants.
40:09And it is about gaslighting the American people into believing that Los Angeles is some so-called hellscape.
40:18If it is such a hellscape, I want to know why Republican members of Congress have been flying into Los Angeles over the past few weeks attending fundraisers.
40:26Nobody's showing up in a hazmat suit or in combat gear.
40:30So, if it is such a hellscape, pull back the cameras. Release the drone footage so we can see what is happening across the entire city.
40:39This resolution ignores the fact that the violence didn't start in a vacuum.
40:44It was sparked by the Trump administration's provocative, aggressive immigration raids across the state.
40:51ICE agents were in neighborhoods, in grocery stores, at churches.
40:55You know, I've never seen a segment on TV about an MS-13 cartel boss in the third grade.
41:01That's what we're seeing. And, of course, we came out and protested.
41:05That is what democracy looks like.
41:08And, of course, our communities are terrified across Los Angeles, across the state, across the country.
41:14But instead of listening to us, people from LA, the president escalated this drama, deploying the National Guard and the Marines to Los Angeles without a request from local law enforcement, the governor, or the mayor.
41:28Why? To launch a pathetic, made-for-TV reality TV show to justify authoritarian crackdowns and to divert from the real violence.
41:38The violence of cutting $880 billion from Medicaid.
41:42The violence of kicking people off of healthcare.
41:45The violence of tanking our economy into the gold toilet.
41:48That is what we should be talking about.
41:50And that is what this president doesn't want us to talk about.
41:53So he turned the cameras and the manufactured, fabricated violence onto Los Angeles.
41:59And then we have the audacity.
42:01Just a moment. Does the gentleman wish to yield additional time?
42:03Yes, an additional 30 seconds. Thank you.
42:05The gentleman is recognized.
42:07Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
42:08And now this is audacity in blaming local leaders.
42:13This is about optics and power and control and stoking the ego of Republicans and King Daddy.
42:20We are tanking the California economy, the fourth largest economy in the world.
42:26Largest donor state.
42:28I refuse to support this resolution.
42:31And I yield back.
42:32The gentleman yields back to the gentleman from Maryland.
42:35We reserve. Thank you.
42:36The gentleman from Maryland reserves.
42:37The gentleman from California is recognized.
42:39This is really an odd notion that we've heard repeatedly that the violence was only concentrated
42:43in part of LA and we need to zoom in and look at the city as a whole.
42:46For the folks who had to deal with this chaos in downtown LA, it's a little comfort to them
42:51that things might have been more serene in Beverly Hills.
42:54And my colleague from California uses the term hellscape for LA.
42:58I'm not sure I would use that term, but I can tell you, LA has had a lot of problems.
43:04So much so that the sheriff's department even had to come out and tell folks, don't wear your jewelry when you go outside.
43:11Just put it on after you get to your destination.
43:15And as to the assertion that somehow this is a made-for-TV spectacle created by the president,
43:20ask yourself, what made for more sensational TV images?
43:24The Waymo's being set on fire, the Molotov cocktails being thrown at officers,
43:29which is to say the things that happened before the National Guard got there,
43:32or our dedicated National Guard members standing outside federal buildings,
43:37making sure that no further damage to property and life occurred.
43:41I reserve.
43:42The gentleman reserves.
43:43The gentleman from Maryland is recognized.
43:45The gentleman from California has engaged in a spirited defense of the immigration policies of the administration.
43:51I wonder if he would clarify for us what the policy is this week, or at least today,
43:56with respect to agriculture in California or any other state.
44:00Because President Trump heard from the Secretary of Agriculture in large agrarian interests
44:04saying that his immigration policies were destroying agriculture in America
44:09by getting rid of tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of people who work there,
44:15and they're disrupting the entire agricultural economy.
44:18Then Donald Trump announced that there were some very fine, good workers within the agriculture sector
44:23and they would not be enforcing the law there, and that lasted for several days.
44:27Then there was a reversal, and they went back to saying,
44:29yes, we will be doing ICE immigration crackdowns again.
44:32Then Donald Trump heard again from the agriculture secretary, as I understand it,
44:36and other interests, and he said, no, they would be leaving some of these people alone.
44:40I wonder if the gentleman could clarify that for us,
44:43and I wonder whether it causes him to second-guess in any way his absolute support for these policies.
44:49Maybe it suggests there's something wrong with what they're doing,
44:52and the administration could go back to the drawing board.
44:54I yield two minutes to the very distinguished gentlelady from California, Representative Paragon.
45:00Gentlelady from California is recognized.
45:02Thank you, Ranking Member Raskin.
45:03I rise in opposition to this partisan and misleading resolution under consideration.
45:09We've heard our colleague distort the facts already through this debate.
45:13I want to remind the American people and everybody.
45:16It was local law enforcement that got the situation under control before the National Guard showed up,
45:22before the Marines showed up.
45:24I know it because I was on the phone with sheriffs and I was on the phone with local law enforcement
45:29who said, no, we don't need anybody.
45:32The situation is under control.
45:34This resolution distorts the facts of what happened in Los Angeles.
45:37It falsely paints a picture of widespread chaos across Los Angeles to justify and legitimize Donald Trump's dangerous decision
45:45to deploy the National Guard and U.S. Marines on American soil,
45:50all without the consent of California's governor or a request from local law leaders and law enforcement.
45:57That's why I worked with Representative Zoe Lofgren to introduce a resolution that condemns violence,
46:04that supports peaceful protests and sets the facts straight.
46:09Angelenos have exercised their First Amendment right to peacefully protest federal ICE raids that have terrorized our communities.
46:17Unfortunately, there have been a small handful of troublemakers who have taken to the streets to cause destruction and physical confrontation.
46:25They should be arrested and prosecuted, something that the governor, the mayor and L.A.'s congressional delegation have called for from the start.
46:34Let's remember, though, how we got here.
46:36What we've seen on our streets is chilling.
46:38Masked men in unmarked cars, no identification or badge, drawing weapons,
46:44swarming businesses and parks to indiscriminately stop, arrest and detain immigrants and U.S. citizens.
46:51People are being stopped and detained because of the color of their skin.
46:55These are not violent criminals.
46:57The majority of the people have no criminal record.
46:59They are taking and leaving.
47:01They're taking the parents and they're leaving the kids stranded.
47:04They have bang grenades in crowds and sending those off.
47:07ICE is even arresting U.S. citizens based on how they look.
47:12I would grant the gentlelady an additional 30 seconds.
47:14The gentlelady has an additional 30 seconds.
47:16It is this conduct that's causing people to go out on the street and peacefully protest.
47:20President Trump's deployment of troops only escalated tensions and further unrest.
47:25Democrats have been clear.
47:26Anyone who committed violence must be held accountable.
47:29We must recognize that peaceful protests are patriotic.
47:32Deploying troops to silence dissent is not.
47:34This resolution ignores those facts to score political points.
47:38I urge a no vote, and I yield back.
47:40The gentleman from Maryland reserves.
47:43The gentleman from California is recognized.
47:45The assertion has been made repeatedly that the president's deployment of the guard escalated tensions.
47:50We have seen zero evidence for that.
47:52And we all saw the images, the horrifying violence that was occurring before the guard came in.
47:57I would also remind my colleagues, who continue to assert that there was something untoward about the president deploying the guard,
48:04that the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled otherwise.
48:08In a unanimous decision, the court analyzed the relevant statute,
48:13which provides that the president has the authority to make use of the guard in order to stop the execution of federal law from being disrupted.
48:21And the judges looked at the facts on the ground and said when you have Molotov cocktails being thrown at officers,
48:27when you have a commercial dumpster being used as a battering ram in order to break into a federal office building's parking lot,
48:37when you have roadways being shut down, this looks a lot like there's a disruption of the ability to carry out the federal law.
48:44So again, not me saying this, this is a unanimous panel of Trump-appointed and Biden-appointed judges who came to that determination.
48:51And I'll happily answer the question of my friend from Maryland about what is the question when it comes to agriculture.
48:58Well, here's what the law says.
48:59The law says that coming into this country without authorization is illegal, categorically.
49:05And then it is within the discretion of the executive branch how to prioritize deportations.
49:12And across party lines, there has always been a strong focus on prioritizing those with criminal records.
49:19Beyond that, different presidents have chosen to exercise that discretion in different ways.
49:24For example, President Obama chose to deport millions of people during his time in office.
49:30And it's ultimately a matter of how the president chooses to carry out that policy.
49:35But here's the important point for purposes of today's debate.
49:39Whatever your views are on that matter, whether you favor deporting everyone in the country illegally, whether you favor deporting no one in the country illegally.
49:48You should not, you cannot, you absolutely must not use violence in order to advance that point of view.
49:56That is the principle at stake in today's debate.
49:59And to vote against this resolution is to countenance what happened, the horrifying events that we saw in my state.
50:08I reserve.
50:09I'm from California reserves.
50:11The gentleman from Maryland is recognized.
50:13Well, thank you, Mr. Speaker.
50:14I'm glad we're getting somewhere in this debate.
50:16The gentleman concedes that it's within the discretion of the administration to decide where to target resources.
50:24I was just trying to find out where the administration is this week because we're getting conflicting accounts of whether or not they're still targeting the farm workers.
50:34Because we're getting reports from California, Texas, New Mexico, that entire farms are shut down because there have been ice raids.
50:42The other workers are afraid to come to work and they're begging the president to do something.
50:46He said we would stop doing that.
50:48Then they reversed it, I think, when Stephen Miller got involved.
50:51And now the agriculture interests again are getting involved.
50:53They should get the policy together.
50:56But it speaks to an underlying problem here, which is that the overwhelming number of arrests now are not of people who are criminal suspects for anything.
51:0765% of the people who have been taken by ice since this administration began had no criminal convictions at all.
51:14And that's why you read articles like in the Wall Street Journal about small rural towns that voted for Donald Trump that are up in arms, that are in an uproar because people who have done nothing wrong and are pillars of the community are being taken away from their workplaces, their farms, their restaurants, their businesses in their homes.
51:34I'd also would like to ask the distinguished gentleman from California, whom I know to be a serious student of the law because he was a student of mine of the law when we were at Yale Law School together.
51:47What authorizes the government to send people out who are not identified with any law enforcement insignia masked in unmarked cars to arrest people?
52:01Doesn't that set the people up for danger in America?
52:05That's what the assassins in Minnesota were doing.
52:11They showed up dressed like some kind of vague like police person without any law enforcement insignia in an unmarked car.
52:20That sets us up for danger.
52:22Don't you think that the law enforcement norm is for people to know who police officers are so that they know they have to submit to their authority?
52:31I would happily yield for or I'll reserve and see whether my colleague would like to answer the question.
52:38The gentleman from Maryland reserves, the gentleman from California is recognized.
52:41Well, if it's true that law enforcement is somehow never allowed to be in something other than their uniform, I think you have a lot of people who got tickets for running a stop sign when there was an unmarked car there who would be happy to hear that because they have now a new basis to challenge that.
52:59I think we are all aware that there are circumstances like when someone is undercover when they're doing a stakeout in which it doesn't make sense to identify yourself as an officer.
53:10Now, of course, that's neither here nor there because we've seen that in these very targeted operations, these folks are very clearly identified.
53:20And to the extent that some have chosen to not have their faces revealed, it's because we have seen the threats against ICE absolutely skyrocket over the last several months.
53:32And it's, again, quite ironic when you had folks on that side of the aisle who were all about masks in the most absurd of settings during the COVID years.
53:43We'd have people playing singles tennis or out on the ocean paddleboarding and they're required to wear a mask.
53:49You'd have two year olds having to wear masks all day when no other countries, you know, did this.
53:54And yet now when a federal officer undertaking dangerous activity, trying to do their jobs, yet facing threats, being doxxed, feeling like they and their family are at risk, chooses to take this protective measure.
54:08Now you have a problem with it. I reserve.
54:11The gentleman from California reserves. The gentleman from Maryland is recognized.
54:14We have no further speakers. We're ready to close.
54:16So does the gentleman wish to, the gentleman reserves at this time?
54:21I reserve it this time.
54:22The gentleman from California is recognized.
54:23I have no further speakers and wish to close. I reserve.
54:26The gentleman also reserves, so the gentleman from Maryland is recognized.
54:30Well, thank you, Mr. Speaker.
54:32There are masked agents in unmarked cars sent out violating people's due process rights, as the courts have found, including all the way up to the Supreme Court.
54:44They're arresting members of Congress. They're prosecuting members of Congress for doing their jobs.
54:50They federalized the state national guard when the police in Los Angeles and the elected officials are doing their jobs.
54:57This is an authoritarian attack on constitutional democracy.
55:02We must get back to the rule of law, and if nothing else, the Republicans should put up the plaque they are committed to put up,
55:11honoring the police officers who defended American democracy, the vice president of the United States, the House of Representatives, the Senate,
55:19and everybody in this room during the January 6th violent insurrection which Donald Trump was impeached for having incited.
55:28I yield back.
55:30The gentleman yields back. The gentleman from California is recognized.
55:34Mr. Speaker, what happened in L.A. put on stark display years of reckless and failed policies,
55:41starting with the millions of people who came across the border illegally during the Biden years,
55:46and the sanctuary policies that California has enacted,
55:49not to mention the countless people who have been released from prison early thanks to reckless crime policies.
55:55But today's resolution is not about any of that.
55:59Today's resolution is about something much simpler.
56:03A notion that I would hope would be unobjectionable.
56:07That in this country, we settle our differences through reasoned arguments and debate,
56:13not through force and violence.
56:16That we make political decisions through elections and not through riots.
56:22I hope that this resolution will receive strong bipartisan support on the floor today.
56:27And I yield back.
56:30The gentleman yields back.
56:32All time for debate has expired pursuant to House Resolution 530.
56:36The previous question is ordered on the resolution and the preamble.
56:40The American Pronunciation Guide to the SchoolllivenÃs
57:00AddED by the record pushing intimidate the resolution of the government.
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