Laken Riley Act

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mrs. RAMIREZ. Mr. Speaker, I thank the Congressman for yielding me time.

Mr. Speaker, it is hard to keep myself composed when I hear people speak their hypocrisies that actually generate profits for them when they talk the way they do and then also use the word ``God'' somehow in their speech.

Let me say this: We cannot realize justice by engaging in grave injustice. We cannot achieve safety by putting millions in harm's way. We cannot honor our ideals that we talk so much about in this place by undermining civil rights.

Preemptively jailing people is not accountability. It is inhumanity. Mandatory, indefinite detention based not on charges or convictions, but on accusations, that is the tool of dictators, not democracies.

Let me be clear that Laken Riley's death is a tragedy, and we have work to do to protect women and make our communities safer. We should be bringing bills like Break the Cycle of Violence Act to the floor. We could perhaps have a discharge petition and do it right now.

Let's remember that undocumented immigrants didn't make college unaffordable. They didn't destroy our environment. They didn't deny insurance claims. They didn't raise our rents.

Scapegoating immigrants just deflects the accountability from the corporations and from the billionaires and bosses profiting from everyday American hardships. That is what this is all about. It is about ending due process so that they can profit.

Mr. Speaker, I encourage my colleagues to vote ``no.''

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source