'They Want To Flood The Zone With Excrement': Adam Schiff Slams Trump Admin Legal Actions

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During a joint House and Senate Judiciary Committee hearing last month, Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) spoke about the Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids across the country.

Transcript

00:00thank you congressman raskin if i'm not mistaken the next uh senator was a former member of the

00:06house judiciary committee very much so it's an honor to be her senator schiff senator schiff

00:12california thank you chairman durbin and chairman raskin for putting this hearing together and for

00:18all your leadership on both of these important committees um i wanted to ask you all um your

00:26thoughts on how the administration is handling the immigration issues in la and in california we are

00:33the epicenter of the indiscriminate arrests detentions family separations the militarization

00:41of the guard the marine corps the deployment of law enforcement or rather military for law enforcement

00:48purposes there's so much to ask let me just start with one issue and that is the ethnic profiling of

00:55people uh they're grabbing people off the street uh they're they're claiming they're looking for one

01:02person at times and just grabbing whoever they get other times they don't even know who they're

01:07they're arresting or detaining courts have ruled they're not allowed to profile in this way

01:13we're having citizens and non-citizens alike who are being arrested because they uh because of their

01:20appearance and and yet it goes on and it's going on every day um what can be done to enforce the court

01:30orders that have already said you can't um just profile someone and arrest someone without uh probable

01:37cause or reasonable suspicion or any other basis apart from their ethnicity

01:41well we can take action uh in courts as you know the federal government is the government of limited

01:53powers of states all other other the 10th amendment are left to the states and one of those federal

01:58powers one of those federal responsibilities is in the area of immigration but it's not unlimited

02:04they cannot racially profile they cannot use national address language things like that

02:09as you said there's plenty of court cases on this and in the past we have brought amicus briefs and

02:15other action to try to bolster uh the petitions of certain groups i remember when i was uh the on

02:23trump one we uh actually filed an amicus when trump tried to terminate tps for liberian immigrants because

02:31he had recently said uh those ugly remarks about um you know s whole countries so we're not

02:39without tools to stop the at the profiling the racial profiling uh we and it is something that

02:47we we meet on a regular basis we talk about these things on a regular basis and it's something that we

02:53certainly need to look at what powers can ags bring to stop the racial profiling i think it's perfectly

02:59legitimate and something well within our ability to take a close look at if i'm if i may i just want

03:04just note trump recently said that he was concerned because some of his big donors uh their employees

03:12in the area of agriculture and hospitality are being impacted by his policy and then and so what he's

03:19really saying is that uh he's might let these donors uh exploit workers unfairly and maybe not

03:27do his uh anti-immigrant thing against this particular set and then he of course a few days later pull back

03:34off of that but the irrationality is what i'm talking about it is inherently arbitrary it's capricious

03:41and you know the federal government is not allowed to act in an arbitrary capricious manner it must act

03:47rationally based on uh thought and planning and fairness and so thank you for raising these issues

03:53there's something that all of us are deeply concerned about and will focus our attention on

03:58generalists i appreciate it and i think uh what we're seeing and and what we need to combine our

04:03forces on is increasingly they're just ignoring the court orders uh we're winning in court and they're

04:09just ignoring the court orders and they they feel in the same way they want to flood the zone with

04:14excrement in other areas they flood the zone of uh violation of court orders and by the time you go

04:21back to court and back to court and back to court they've continued to arrest and detain people on the

04:26basis of their appearance um let me turn to a related concern and that is they're making some of these

04:33arrests in courthouses this seems to be part of their new modus operandi of course immigrants are more

04:39likely to be witnesses in those courthouses than defendants but what are you seeing happen uh are you

04:46seeing immigrants not willing to come and testify in criminal cases anymore because they have fear that

04:52they might get detained and what's more what are attorneys recommending to clients that have

04:58immigration appointments we had this horribly heartbreaking case which is just one of many of a

05:04californian who went to an immigration proceeding with his son showed up the way he's supposed to

05:10and is arrested um and then deported away from his son and then his son is also deported

05:19um but what what do attorneys now recommend to their clients um can attorneys show up in lieu of

05:27their client to make the appearance or or how how are people supposed to handle the conflicting

05:33obligations to show up for a court appearance with the fear that that court appearance is going to be

05:39abused uh to arrest and detain and deport them well the courts we have most influence on our state courts

05:46and we've been urging you know we've been raising this issue that witnesses defendants victims simply

05:55won't show up to court we have seen people express tremendous fear about this we've seen some of the

06:01sectors where there are mercados or other sort of ethnic groceries that where people aren't simply aren't

06:08going there anymore we've seen schools that have a lot of immigrant children not show up for school

06:14one of the things that we're advocating for in our with our state courts now is to have more uh more video

06:20hearings uh so that people can have some some some some sense that they can be heard without having

06:27fear that ice is going to show up and take this action or or other and recently they have changed you

06:34know historically there has been this idea that sensitive areas uh are places where ice should not

06:41you know be there because they could interfere with the administration of justice well the

06:46administration has crossed that out so we we are in a tough situation when it comes to this but i

06:52think there are things we can do video hearings are one thing that i know that we're talking about

06:57in minnesota chairman can i ask one last one question sure if you can make it quick congressman

07:02will you indulge your old colleague um the court appeals in the ninth circuit recently um rendered the

07:15term through the governor superfluous when it comes to nationalizing the guard over the opposition of

07:21the governor um and the issue of the use of the marine corps to detain uh or participate in any way in

07:30law enforcement is being challenged in court we suspect this playbook is going to be repeated in

07:35your states as well what preparations are you making uh for the potential um activation mobilization

07:43of your guards over the opposition of your governor and over the opposition of law enforcement in your

07:50states well obviously um i disagree with the interpretation interpretation of the ninth circuit

08:02with regards to um basically rendering the uh governor's power of of of having the power to consent to the

08:13activation of the guard and risk our respective states i've been in touch with our governor

08:19uh with regards to uh our preparation in the state of illinois unfortunately uh the trump

08:28administration has politicized his prioritization of of of states that are being targeted for aggressive

08:35immigration reform enforcement based on party affiliation um not on general uh immigration uh uh policy

08:46uh you know we continue to uh uh uh try to litigate the best we can and if i could touch on your prior

08:58question for a moment i think um there's there's limitation what in what we can do by way of the courts and i

09:06as attorney general i i have to acknowledge that and i i i have a young daughter who's a rising 3l and i've asked her to pay

09:14attention to the words of chief justice roberts as he spoke to georgetown law students and and and

09:21and cautioned them that the rule of law is under threat and that we need to enhance our civics education

09:28i think what the chief justice was talking about is that yes we've had some successes that we have had some

09:37some successes in the courts but we're not going to be able to achieve everything in the courts and

09:41we've got to educate the public at large as to uh our constitution or basics of our constitution not

09:49make constitutional scholars out of them but understand the basics uh such that the people uh

09:55can speak and resist uh a president who says he doesn't know whether or not he has to follow the

10:02constitution mr chairman i know we're a little over time but but if i may senator if there is one thing

10:10that converts a society from a free society to an authoritarian society it is use of the military

10:18against the population for dissent this thing in california has me sleepless quite honestly and i just

10:27want to point out that um deference to a executive when that executive is not bound by common norms of of

10:41um of law and decency uh is essentially unleashing military rule on the society and i and i i i really

10:50i've heard that uh in california they are going to raise this issue higher uh to the you know to the

10:57next level we don't know what will happen there but i'm telling you that if there's there is one thing

11:03that will that will cause irrevocable time to harm to american democracy it is the military turn against

11:10american citizens and all under the rubric of uh public order when both the governor and the mayor of the

11:18city are saying we really don't need your help at all that's undisputed they don't need la doesn't

11:24need doesn't need donald trump's help i'll stop right thank you general ellison senator schiff i was

11:29just going to say um general i totally agree with you but it would have been nice if the chief justice

11:37thought about that before he gave the president united states immunity to commit criminal acts while in

11:43office

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