Dem Rep. Chuy Garcia: ‘[Trump] Is Not Protecting the Country, He Is Waging War Against the Country’

Garcia: “Thank you to all the leaders of Illinois and the Chicagoland, Cook County, that are assembled here demonstrating once again that Chicago and Illinois are places with strong shoulders and that we will shoulder any injustice and we will tackle any injustice that comes our way as we live this very dangerous moment in our history. The president of the United States has turned the power of government against its own people. In my community, Ground Zero for these attacks, ICE has created a constant state of siege. People worry about their presence and their tactics every single hour of the day and night. We’ve seen masked ICE agents shoot into cars, engage in chemical warfare with bystanders, and even assault parents in front of their children. My grandson, who I am raising with my wife, and my wife, are terrified. My grandson talks about it every little while and he wants to know if his classmates will be safe, if their parents will be deported. But it’s also never been just about immigrants. It’s about controlling every one of our communities, brown, Asian, black, and everyone who is Chicagoland and Illinois. These are not actions of a democracy, these are actions of a tyrant. I took an oath when I became a citizen 46 years ago and again when I was sworn in as a member of the United States Congress, and my loyalty is sworn to the U.S. Constitution, and only that. And my oath compels me to be here today with our leaders, because when a president tries to federalize the National Guard, when he ignores court orders, when his agents break the law and brutalize our community, he is not protecting the country, he’s waging war against the country. This lawsuit is not just about legal arguments. It’s about accountability. It’s about whether or not we’ll allow tyranny to take root on our soil. Donald Trump is pushing the boundaries and daring to believe that the courts, the law, the Constitution no longer matter. We cannot stand for that. Don’t lose the faith. We must fight as if the courts still matter, because they do. We must stand as if the law has meaning, because it does. And we must resist together, because only together can we defeat — defeat the assault on our communities. Chicago will not be intimidated. Illinois will not be silenced. History will remember where we stood in this moment, whether we stood tall and — or we shrank in fear. Today, we stand tall.”