'They're Going To The Lowest Of Lows': IL AG Kwame Raoul Rips Trump Over Immigration Policies

6 months ago

During a joint House and Senate Judiciary Committee hearing last month, Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HI) asked Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul about President Trump's threat to tie disaster aid with cooperation with immigration enforcement.

Transcript

00:00Thank you very much. I'd like to thank Chair Raskin and of Ranking Member Durbin for calling

00:11all of us together. And it's nice to see my colleagues from the House, especially with

00:17Congressman Johnson, with whom, well, I was elected to the U.S. House the same year. And

00:23of course, I want to particularly give my aloha to our AG from Minnesota, Keith. We were

00:31elected at the same time. So here we are. We're still plugging away. We have a president who

00:37does not think that the rule of law applies to him. He is governing through executive orders

00:42and taking unilateral actions. And as we all know, there are over 200 lawsuits that have

00:49been filed to prevent this regime and this president from continuing in his lawless endeavors.

00:58Many of them and dozens, of course, brought by our state Democratic AGs, including the Democratic

01:04Attorney General of the state of Hawaii. So I'm really proud of the fact that you all are

01:09fighting back because the only thing standing between us and the lawlessness of this administration

01:16are those of you fighting back through the filing of various lawsuits. And it takes time.

01:22We know that the president, really, as far as I'm concerned, he doesn't give a rip about

01:26our constitutional rights and our protections. So thank goodness for you all. I did have a

01:31question. There are a number of questions that I have, but one that comes to mind is his executive

01:38order trying to end birthright citizenship. And Attorney General Placken, you are the lead on

01:46this. And I'm not sure how the Supreme Court is going to decide. Apparently, they're not going

01:52to get to the merits of whether or not birthright citizenship is a constitutionally protected right,

01:59or whether the Supreme Court is simply going to somehow opine about nationwide injunctions and the

02:07appropriateness of a nationwide injunction during the pendency of the case. Can you tell us a little bit

02:12more about what might happen with the court's decision, which is coming soon? And there are a lot

02:19of people who are citizens, thanks to birthright citizenship, who are very concerned about what

02:26the Supreme Court could do. Well, Senator, first of all, let me, in absentia, commend your attorney

02:33general, Ana Lopez, who is an outstanding colleague and part of our coalition, notwithstanding the time

02:38difference. She is on all of our calls. You're absolutely right. I was in the courtroom, as

02:45was General Campbell, a few weeks ago in the Supreme Court. I'm very proud he's here today. Our

02:52Solicitor General, Jeremy Feigenbaum, was arguing on behalf of the states. And I think we have to

02:56remember how truly remarkable and astonishing it is to hear the United States government, first of all,

03:03not even concede that they would follow Supreme Court precedent, which even Justice Coney Barrett

03:08sort of was shocked to hear the Solicitor General of the United States say. But to be arguing to the

03:14highest court in land that a baby born in the United States' citizenship should turn on whether the

03:23Attorney General of their state joined a lawsuit. That was fundamentally what they were arguing.

03:29They weren't even contesting whether this is constitutional, because even they know this

03:33is the most unconstitutional order maybe ever signed by a president. But they do think babies

03:38in Philadelphia should be treated differently than babies in Camden. And as, and I think we have to

03:43remember what that would mean. Well, in New Jersey, we are a small, dense state. A lot of mothers choose

03:50to cross the border into Philadelphia to give birth. Is it really the position of the United States

03:56government? This is what we were asking, that that child's citizenship turns on whether that mother

04:02is at the supermarket when they go into labor across the river. We've reached a point of absurdity here

04:08that is really dangerous for residents of our country. And I find it totally absurd that this is a

04:14constitutionally protected provision. It is in the U.S. Constitution, and we have a Supreme Court

04:20that might base their decision on whether, depending on what every state's attorney general or whoever

04:27might be filing a lawsuit, whether that is pursued. It makes absolutely no sense. So this is not a Supreme

04:33Court that we can rely upon, as far as I'm concerned, to protect our rights and privileges.

04:40You know, there are so many questions relating to the lawlessness of this regime, as I refer to it.

04:47But I did want to ask one more thing about them conditioning funding on immigration enforcement.

04:55So, again, Attorney General Raul, last week you led a challenge by 20 attorney generals,

05:03including Hawaii's, against an attempt by the Department of Homeland Security

05:07to condition emergency management and disaster relief funding on the state immigration enforcement.

05:13What sort of important funding would be at risk from this kind of reckless tying of federal funds to

05:24cooperation on deportations?

05:30Thank you for your question, Senator. Again, I mentioned, as an example earlier,

05:35there are the tornadoes that tend to hit Illinois. You know, California has had wildfires.

05:50There are disasters of various nature that hit different regions of our country,

05:58and our ability to respond should not be contingent upon immigration enforcement.

06:07And, unfortunately, the prioritization of this administration on trying to find every tool possible

06:18to try to compel the states to do what is the federal government's job in terms of civil immigration enforcement.

06:33They're going to the lowest of the low to go towards restricting funding

06:43that would otherwise help families in their greatest time of need

06:48when disasters have hit their homes and their communities.

06:54Just one more comment. I mean, if the court does not support what you are arguing,

07:00then this regime could tie any sort of contracts, funding, grants, all kinds of things,

07:06based on cooperation with them on their goal to deport 11 million undocumented people.

'They're Going To The Lowest Of Lows': IL AG Kwame Raoul Rips Trump Over Immigration Policies

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