They came from the southern border. The majority are from Texas, those exact same checkpoints that have been written about before. But because there’s no place to keep them there, they’re being transferred around the country. Interestingly, we do have an immigration detention center in Tacoma, but t…
— Pramila Jayapal, Rep. Pramila Jayapal—‘They Could Hear Their Children Screaming for Them in the Next Room’
My mother's mother worked at a ball-bearing plant. She was a steelworker at a time when it wasn't common to see a woman in that position. Eventually she became a union leader and an activist, trying to stop drugs in her community. (She and her family were pushed out of their neighborhood by drug dea…
— Lisa Blunt Rochester, How Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester Turned Her All-Consuming Grief Into Political Motivation
First, as a dad of two little girls. I serve in the Legislature because I want to ensure that my kids–and everyone in my state–can get a good education and can get a good job. That’s what motivates me to serve. And that’s part of the reason I care so much about the success of our students.
Some of them said they could hear their children screaming for them in the next room. The children ranged anywhere from one to teenagers.
— Pramila Jayapal, Rep. Pramila Jayapal—‘They Could Hear Their Children Screaming for Them in the Next Room’
Last century, as Jews were being systematically murdered in Europe, the U.S. had a chance to admit those fleeing the Holocaust, and did virtually nothing. History will not judge the Trump administration favorably for slamming the door in the face of refugees of this century who are desperately tryin…
— Ben Ray Lujan, Immigration | U.S. Congressman Ben Ray Luján
I met with 174 women, in three different pods. I went from one pod to the next. The vast majority were Spanish speaking, but there was a group of Chinese speakers and some others. We had a Spanish interpreter. The women would all answer at once sometimes. I did a lot of ‘raise your hand’ questions.…
— Pramila Jayapal, Rep. Pramila Jayapal—‘They Could Hear Their Children Screaming for Them in the Next Room’
The report that you've produced, 500-plus pages, makes clear that the former FBI director violated Department of Justice protocol on multiple occasions, most severely in July of 2016, with a public explanation of Hillary Clinton's conduct, recklessly calling it 'extremely careless,' violating DOJ pr…
There is not a scintilla of evidence that a witch hunt exists right now. In fact, if any individual connected to the 2016 presidential campaign was victimized by prosecutorial misconduct, her name was Hillary Clinton.
In the end, our ability to keep and grow jobs in my community, and in this nation, is directly related to our ability to provide a skilled workforce.
This latest action by the Trump administration defies America’s principles. It will result in life-long consequences for children, including mental health issues like depression, anxiety, developmental delays, and substance use disorder. The Trump administration must be held accountable for their in…
— Ben Ray Lujan, Luján Statement on Trump Administration Decision to Detain Families Indefinitely | U.S. Congressman Ben Ray Luján
If Democrats win back the House in November, Nancy is in the driver’s seat. It is up to her whether she wants to return as Speaker or not. She has not said definitively what her plans are. I also have not seen anyone step up and say that they are going to challenge her.
This spring I met with a woman studying nursing at Tacoma Community College. She was balancing school, a part time job, and a family. She told me that she was struggling with the costs of college, books, child care, and everything else. But she told me, as she approached her graduation, that her tim…
Our community colleges are important to training and retraining the workforce of today and tomorrow.
President Trump has not only hardened his heart against the obvious suffering of refugees fleeing persecution, destruction and carnage in their homeland, he also ignores the lessons of history.
— Ben Ray Lujan, Immigration | U.S. Congressman Ben Ray Luján
What are you guys complaining about? You know what happened. James Comey decided to play judge, jury and executioner, and, on October 28th, he executed the Hillary Clinton campaign—killed her in Pennsylvania, killed her in Michigan, killed her in Wisconsin and handed Donald Trump the presidency and,…
It depends on the kind of mood that they are in. For example, there are areas where I thought that we would be able to cooperate where things have not occurred. I thought that we would be able to cooperate on infrastructure, for example, and criminal justice, and that has not occurred anywhere to th…
Folks might be too angry right now, but that doesn’t mean that’s how they’ll feel a year from now, and I believe it’s incumbent on whoever follows Trump to work to bring the country back together. I don’t think that the divisions Trump and his cronyism have created are going to evaporate overnight j…
Of course, victims have rights and the perpetrators need punishment, but they also need to get well. If you can address the underlying addiction, you can prevent them from committing another crime. The options that you have as a prosecutor were somewhat limited and we had to do more work upstream in…
— Joe Kennedy III, An Interview with Joe Kennedy III, Representative from MA-4
For the last few hours, we've sat in this hearing, and some of my colleagues, part of the Cover-Up Caucus, have attempted to peddle conspiracy theories that the investigation into the Trump campaign's potential criminality, where we were attacked by a hostile foreign power, is a witch hunt….It's a p…
At some point, Trump will be beaten. What does that mean for the rest of us? And there will definitely be people who try to lord it over, saying, ‘See, we were right all along.’ ...Then there will be some special leaders who work to try to bring us together, to say, ‘I understand why you supported h…