Interview With Rep. Greg Casar (D- TX);

Interview

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"Well, Donald Trump remains the biggest grifter and con artist that American politics probably has ever seen, and he is out there trying to pitch this anti-immigrant rhetoric, but if you live here in Texas, you know that millions of people live in mixed status families. Families have immigrants and citizens in them. Our classrooms are mixed.

And the idea of continuing to separate families, of massive deportations, not only is it wrong, it would devastate places like Texas.

And so he keeps on trying to do this con artist thing to distract people from the real issues at hand and we need to stop this cruelty Olympics where folks like Donald Trump and Governor Abbott try to come up with an even more and more cruel and inhumane immigration system when we should be trying to create a more just orderly and safe system for everyone.

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This is a totally unconstitutional law, but on top of that, it is not for public safety.

I'm here right now standing on the northern edge of San Antonio in my district, we are about a two-and-a-half hour drive from the border and no one I've ever spoken to in San Antonio or anywhere else in Texas wants our local law enforcement to be hunting down people that they think are immigrants or look like immigrants, and then dragging them two-and-a-half hours to the border, when instead we should be working on solving crime, when instead we should be working on making our communities more safe. This would make our communities less safe, and it would be diverting law enforcement resources.

Again, when Governor Abbott or Donald Trump says that they're for law and order, really what they're talking about is passing unconstitutional laws, separating families, and trying to target communities that are usually poor communities that may not speak English, in order to distract from the fact that really what they're spending their time doing is cutting taxes for billionaires and big corporations, while they try to blame our problems on immigrants or whoever else that can place the blame on.

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I recently ran a poll here in my own district after I'd come out for a ceasefire, asking where our Democratic voters were, and 80 percent of Democratic voters here in the heart of Texas support a ceasefire and stopping Hamas without the killing of thousands more innocent Palestinians. And I think that's where we need to get to.

I am encouraged by the news that in fact, there are some temporary ceasefire agreements that are currently being negotiated to release some of the hostages. I think we need to get that done, and then expand that to a longer term peace, where we can have sovereignty and safety for Israelis and Palestinians alike without thousands more people dead, be they Israeli or Palestinian.

I think Democrats, Independents, and Republicans increasingly want us to leave these indefinite occupations and wars in the Middle East and instead find lasting solutions for peace, and I expect to continue to see the president and other elected officials continue to move our way as we see more and more members of Congress come out for ceasefire.

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There is going to be more and more protests on this issue, as things continue to get worse and worse, and what we need to do is make sure we protect everyone's First Amendment rights, but that everything happen as peacefully as possible.

People have a right to peaceful protest under the First Amendment. It is law enforcement's job to protect that First Amendment right, to make sure that protests are safe for everyone and protesters have a responsibility to make sure no one is in harm's way.

But whether someone agrees with me or disagrees with me as a member of Congress, our commitment has to be to protecting the First Amendment, but recognizing that the First Amendment requires as well that everyone be safe and peaceful, be you a demonstrator on one side or another or law enforcement, everybody has a responsibility to peace.

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Thank you so much for having me on."

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