Pramila Jayapal Says Outright: Trump Administration 'Opposes All Immigration'

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In a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday, Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) delivered an opening statement about legal immigration into the United States.

Transcript

00:00for her opening statement. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In my two and a half years as ranking

00:05member of the Immigration Subcommittee, I believe that this is the first hearing that the majority

00:10has held that is not focused on undocumented immigrants. I'm glad the majority realizes that

00:17there is an entire legal immigration system to discuss, a system that has not been updated in

00:2235 years. We need a modernized system that meets our 21st century needs while also protecting

00:28American workers. Many of our colleagues on the other side of the aisle love to say that they

00:33support legal immigration and people coming in in, quote, the right way. Well, this is their chance.

00:40Unfortunately, just over 150 days into the second Trump administration, the Trump administration

00:44has been making it exceedingly clear that it opposes all immigration, including legal immigration.

00:51Across the country, we have seen students picked up by masked immigration agents in unmarked cars

00:58taken to detention facilities with no warning and given limited information as to why they are being

01:05deported. The administration has revoked thousands of student visas as a weapon to stifle political

01:11dissent, restrict due process, and enforce an exclusionary and nativist vision of America that

01:18runs counter to everything our institutions of higher learning stand for. And just last week,

01:24video of masked ICE agents violently beating the father of three U.S. Marines has absolutely shocked

01:33the conscience of Americans across the political spectrum. The administration's actions to close

01:38off legal pathways will actually hurt America's ability to innovate and attract the talent we need.

01:45And make no mistake, they are not about national security. And we know this because just last month,

01:50Secretary of State Rubio announced plans to, quote, aggressively revoke student visas of Chinese

01:56students, all in the name of national security. And yet just two weeks later, President Trump, in

02:02announcing a so-called trade deal with China, said Chinese students would still be able to attend

02:07universities in the United States, even noting, quote, it has always been good with me. After a pause, the

02:14United States has resumed interviews for F, J, and M visas, but added new screening of the applicant's

02:20social media. These visas cover more than just students. They apply to physicians, university

02:26researchers, and all pairs, many of whom come to work for military families and others. And then earlier

02:32this month, President Trump issued a proclamation restricting or limiting the entry of nationals from 19

02:38countries. In total, the 19 countries subject to these discriminatory bans have a combined

02:43population of over 475 million people. According to State Department data, the proclamation has

02:51the potential to block at least 34,000 green cards from being issued and over 125,000 non-immigrant visas

02:59from being issued every single year. Recent reporting also tells us that the Trump administration is

03:05considering adding an additional 36 countries to that list, 25 of which are from Africa. These countries

03:13may be subjected to partial or even full travel bans if they do not meet certain benchmarks over the

03:19next two months. And alarmingly, it appears that the Trump administration is attempting to coerce some of

03:25these countries into signing third country removal agreements to keep themselves off the ban list. The Trump

03:32administration has also stripped hundreds of thousands of individuals of their lawful parole or temporary protected

03:39status. Many of these people came lawfully from Nicaragua, Haiti, Cuba, and Venezuela or fled these

03:45cruel regimes. Now the Trump administration is actually making them undocumented and trying to send them

03:52back to their home countries where they may be abused or tortured. Now it's not just African, Asian, or Latin

03:59American countries. Every day it seems we hear a new horror story of Customs and Border Protection stopping and detaining

04:06someone at an air or land port who is from Canada or Europe. And often they then wrongly send those

04:14people to ICE detention for weeks. This includes a German national on a fiancé visa who spent over two

04:22weeks in an ICE detention center because he and his US citizen spouse simply took a day trip to Mexico. Or at the

04:31Canadian border, a backpacker from Wales spent nearly three weeks at a detention center over confusion related

04:38to her visa before being allowed to fly home at her own expense. A Canadian woman on a work visa detained at

04:45the Tijuana border who spent 12 days in detention before finally being able to return home. And here's the

04:51kicker. A prime motivation of these detentions appears to be to overfill detention beds at private detention

05:00facilities that are run by for-profit corporations that bankroll Republican campaigns. These for-profit

05:06facilities are rife with abuse because they're actually incentivized to cut corners so that they

05:12can reap enormous profits all paid for by the American taxpayer. The path forward for America is a legal

05:19immigration system that is modernized, fair, and adequate to meet the needs of our families and our economy.

05:27Attacking legal immigration, student visas, workers with valid visas, even sweeping up US citizens,

05:34that's not just morally wrong, it makes absolutely no sense. Making America less welcoming as a nation

05:41is already having a real impact. The United States will lose out 12.5 billion dollars in tourism alone

05:51this year. Students and top scientists and researchers don't want to come to a country that suppresses their

05:57free speech rights or discriminates against them for what their home repressive governments do.

06:03That should not be what America is. I look forward to hearing from all our witnesses today and I yield back.

06:09The gentlelady yields back. I now recognize the ranking member of the full committee, Mr. Raskin, for an opening statement.

06:16Mr. Chairman, thank you very kindly and thank you to all the witnesses for being with us today.

06:22There is more to immigration than border enforcement.

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