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Tag Archives: immigration

Immigration: on DACA – Kansas City – February 11, 2018

14 Wednesday Feb 2018

Posted by Michael Bersin in Resist

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

#resist, #SyedJamal, DACA, immigration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, missouri, Trump

The Trump administration. Fear.

Gabby – February 11, 2018.

Sunday afternoon the KC Metro Immigration Alliance sponsored an event in Kansas City at All Souls Unitarian Univeralist Church, focusing on the plight of Syed Jamal and individuals who, like him, are in immigration crisis exacerbated by the policies of the Trump administration. Activists in the community came to speak to the family of Syed Jamal and over one hundred others who attended.

Gabby, a DACA recipient:

Gabby: Hello, everbody.

Our families are currently under attack. I want to tell you more about my family. My family is made of mixed status. My five children are all U.S.A. citizens. On the other hand, my husband is undocumented. He came across the desert…when he was only a teenager. For myself, it’s a different story. I was brought to the states as a young child.

I hardly have any memories of what it was when we lived in Mexico. I am currently under the DAC [Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals] status, counting down the days I have left. Only two hundred eighty days left under my status. Every day I wake up thinking about this number. As the days go by this number becomes smaller.

Every day I ask myself if I can continue to live this way. With the fear of losing my family, my home, my jobs. Also, with the uncertainty of my husband, husband getting pulled over by the police and not being able to provide a valid state license will be enough for him to be arrested and sent to an immigration jail.

At this time there’s no more options. He has to work and continue to provide for our family.

A few nights ago at the dinner table I had to approach the conversation with my children about Immigration and what to do if they show up at the front door. My children are afraid. I am, I am, too.

In the [inaudible] of this sinister administration we are being threatened with the possibility of being separated and ripped apart. We need a resolution to this crisis. We need it now. We need to pass a clean Dream ACT. We demand family reunification.

We’ve come this far today to be united and seek integrity and demand accountability for all of our elected officials.

We refuse to go back to the shadows.

We ask for you that are here to become our allies in the fight for justice.

Thank you. [applause]

“Support DACA”

Previously:

Immigration: Syed Ahmed Jamal and many other stories like his (February 11, 2018)

Immigration: Representative Emanuel Cleaver (D) – Press Q and A – Kansas City – February 11, 2018 (February 12, 2018)

Immigration: Representative Emanuel Cleaver (D) – Kansas City – February 11, 2018 (February 12, 2018)

Immigration: Rev. Eleanor McCormick – Kansas City – February 11, 2018 (February 13, 2018)

Immigration: Rev. Eleanor McCormick – Kansas City – February 11, 2018

13 Tuesday Feb 2018

Posted by Michael Bersin in Resist

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

#resist, #SyedJamal, Eleanor McCormick, immigration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Kansas, Kansas City, missouri, Trump

Syed Jamal. Immigration. ICE.

Reverend Eleanor McCormick – February 11, 2018.

Sunday afternoon the KC Metro Immigration Alliance sponsored an event in Kansas City at All Souls Unitarian Univeralist Church, focusing on the plight of Syed Jamal and individuals who, like him, are in immigration crisis exacerbated by the policies of the Trump administration. Activists in the community came to speak to the family of Syed Jamal and over one hundred others who attended.

Reverend Eleanor McCormick, Associate Pastor, Plymouth Congregational Church (UCC), Lawrence, Kansas:

Reverend McCormick: Thank you to the KC Metro Immigration Alliance for organizing this event and for all of you joining us today both in person and online.

It is my belief that the legal perspective on Syed’s case matters. It is also my belief that the moral perspective matters. As a woman of faith I am here to speak out on Syed’s behalf, and on behalf of his three beautiful children […]. And also his beloved wife, Angela, and his devoted brothers, on behalf of the entire Jamal family.

I do so because the biblical command to protect immigrants is unambiguous. Because the radical rabbi from Nazareth, whom I have chosen to follow, Jesus himself, was an immigrant.

Because Jesus said, Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence. This is the most important, the first on any list. But there is a second that we must set alongside it. Love others as well as you love yourself. Love your neighbor as yourself.

Syed is a good neighbor. America needs more neighbors like Syed. And Syed deserves good neighbors to stand with him and to stand with his family today. In fact, all immigrants, neighbor or stranger, deserve good neighbors who are willing to lift up their voices, pick up their phones, take to the streets, and take their convictions to the ballot box.

My hope is that churches and houses of worship across theological spectrums will continue to come together with a loud clarion call to justice. Justice for Jesus in Phoenix. Justice for Audy in Ohio. Justice for Ravi in New York. Justice for Syed in Lawrence, Kansas. Justice for the names we do not know and the children we refuse to see. Justice for Dreamers from sea to sea.

For the media that are here with us today, thank you. My hope and my prayer is that you will help to tell the stories that are too often forgotten. The stories that can be a should be bipartisan.

Now, white people who are here today, and listening. Speaking to you as a white woman, my hope and prayer is that you will amplify the stories that are too often forgotten, using your unearned privilege to transform a broken system and to give back power to the least of these.

All people, my hope and prayer is that you will join me in a prayer for the leaders of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, that they might see the humanity of those they target. For today, Immigration Enforcement agents and our Immigration judges have discretion. And so, my personal prayer is that they will do the right thing and they will keep families together.

We know full well that Syed’s family was not the first to be torn apart. And we know that this family was not and will not be the last. For as of just yesterday anther Church of Christ congregation opened up its sanctuary to be a sanctuary in Phoenix, Arizona.

As an ordained woman in the United Church of Christ I have promised to stand with those who risk their personal well being because of actions taken in response to their moral convictions. I will continue to stand with you, Christians and non-Christians alike, as you risk personal well being to create a just world for all.

Amen.

[applause]

“Free Syed”

Previously:

Immigration: Syed Ahmed Jamal and many other stories like his (February 11, 2018)

Immigration: Representative Emanuel Cleaver (D) – Press Q and A – Kansas City – February 11, 2018 (February 12, 2018)

Immigration: Representative Emanuel Cleaver (D) – Kansas City – February 11, 2018 (February 12, 2018)

Immigration: Representative Emanuel Cleaver (D) – Kansas City – February 11, 2018

12 Monday Feb 2018

Posted by Michael Bersin in Resist

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

#resist, #SayedJamal, Emanuel Cleaver, immigration, Kansas, Kansas City, missouri, Sayed Jamal

Representative Emanuel Cleaver (D) – February 11, 2018.

Yesterday afternoon the KC Metro Immigration Alliance sponsored an event in Kansas City at All Souls Unitarian Univeralist Church. Representative Emanuel Cleaver (D) came to speak to the family of Syed Jamal and over one hundred others, driving to the church directly from the airport, after having visited him in detention in Texas. Representative Cleaver’s remarks:


Representative Emanuel Cleaver (D) – Immigration – February 11, 2018.

Part 2:


Representative Emanuel Cleaver (D) – Immigration – February 11, 2018.

Previously:

Immigration: Syed Ahmed Jamal and many other stories like his (February 11, 2018)

Immigration: Representative Emanuel Cleaver (D) – Press Q and A – Kansas City – February 11, 2018 (February 12, 2018)

Immigration: Representative Emanuel Cleaver (D) – Press Q and A – Kansas City – February 11, 2018

12 Monday Feb 2018

Posted by Michael Bersin in Resist

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

#resist, #SayedJamal, Emanuel Cleaver, immigration, Kansas, Kansas City, missouri, Syed Jamal

Representative Emanuel Cleaver (D) – Press Q and A – Immigration – February 11, 2018.

Yesterday afternoon the KC Metro Immigration Alliance sponsored an event in Kansas City at All Souls Unitarian Univeralist Church. Representative Emanuel Cleaver (D) came to speak to the family of Syed Jamal and over one hundred others, driving to the church directly from the airport, after having visited him in detention in Texas. Representative Cleaver spoke to the press before the start of the event:


Representative Emanuel Cleaver (D) – Press Q and A – Immigration – February 11, 2018

Previously:

Immigration: Syed Ahmed Jamal and many other stories like his (February 11, 2018)

Immigration: Syed Ahmed Jamal and many other stories like his

11 Sunday Feb 2018

Posted by Michael Bersin in Resist

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

#resist, #SyedJamal, Emanuel Cleaver, immigration, Kansas, Kansas City, missouri, Syed Jamal

These are all stories about fear.

Syed Jamal, a thirty year resident of the Kansas City area and the father of three children who are American citizens, is currently in Immigration detention eighty-eight miles outside of El Paso, Texas. He was arrested by ICE in front of his children while on the way to drive his daughter to school. By every account Syed Jamal is a hard working, contributing member of society.

This afternoon the KC Metro Immigration Alliance sponsored an event in Kansas City at All Souls Unitarian Univeralist Church. Representative Emanuel Cleaver (D) came to speak to the family of Syed Jamal and over one hundred others, driving to the church directly from the airport, after having visited him in detention in Texas.

Representative Emanuel Cleaver (D) – February 11, 2018

The children of Syed Jamal with Representative Emanuel Cleaver (D).

The family of Syed Jamal.

“Free Syed”

The family of Syed Jamal.

From 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. immigration activists, faith leaders, friends of Syed Jamal, other families affected by the same policy implementation and uncertainty, a DACA recipient, and Representative Emanuel Cleaver (D) spoke of the inhumanity of our current immigration system. This exacerbated by Donald Trump’s (r) immigration policy priorities and his assault on DACA and Dreamers.

The insanity, absurdity and inhumanity of the current administration on immigration cannot stand.

Missouri GOP House members go into hiding when Trump shows his true colors – about skin color – while GOP Senator Roy Blunt soft peddles the story

20 Saturday Jan 2018

Posted by willykay in Uncategorized

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Tags

Ann Wagner, Billy Long, Blaine Luetkemeyer, Claire McCaskill, Donald Trump, Emanuel Cleaver, GOP dogwhistles, immigration, Jason Smith, Lacy Clay, racism, Roy Blunt, Sam Graves, Vicky Hartzler

It’s been a couple of weeks since President Racist Moron sent us spiraling down toward a government shutdown by expressing his goal of importing prosperous, wealthy white Norwegians – who have little reason to come to the U.S. – instead of brown folks from S**thole countries – who actually need the haven that the United States has traditionally offered the oppressed, poverty stricken folks who flocked to these shores and helped build a strong, wealthy country where the middle class grew and prospered as never before. During this time, I’ve been monitoring the newspapers and congressional press releases to find out how our representatives in Congress have responded to Trump’s racist babblings – and I’ve found out just about nothing to let me know how our GOP profiles in political cowardice stand on the issue. However, today, Salon has posted an article that tells us what each member of Congress has had to say about this destructive and ugly piece of “telling it like it is,” as some of the more racist “deplorable” Trump supporters would have it:

  • Blunt, Roy (R–Sen.): Condemn
  • *McCaskill, Claire (D–Sen.): Condemn
  • Clay Jr., William “Lacy” (D–HR): Condemn
  • Cleaver, Emanuel (D–HR): Condemn
  • Graves, Sam (R–HR): No response
  • Hartzler, Vicky (R–HR): No response
  • Long, Billy (R–HR): No response
  • Luetkemeyer, Blaine (R–HR): No response
  • Smith, Jason (R–HR): No response
  • Wagner, Ann (R–HR): No response

Although GOP Senator Roy Blunt, as befits a junior member of the Senate Leadership, did make a statement, you might be struck, as I was, that it focused on the pragmatic aspects of Trumps words – addressing his competence in securing GOP goals, rather than his bankrupt moral world view:

Senator Roy Blunt, Republican of Missouri, suggested the president’s inability to refrain from incendiary statements was detracting from his agenda.

“It’s an unacceptable view of the world, and it’s an unacceptable thing to say,” Mr. Blunt told KMBZ, a radio station in the Kansas City area. “You would expect the president to lead in determining how you filter your thoughts, rather than to continue to say things that take a lot away from what’s actually getting done.”

Compare the measured words of Blunt – who carefully avoided any overt reference to Trump’s racism, to the unequivocal tweet Democratic Claire McCaskill issued,:

It is unacceptable, repugnant, and morally bankrupt for a President of this great nation to call the countries of Africa “shitholes”. #sicktomystomach  9:32 AM – 12 Jan 2018

 I understand the need for political pragmatism, going along with a bad deal to avoid a worse deal – and I appreciate Blunt’s willingness to sorta, maybe imply that Trump isn’t really a great “dealmaker,” but for many of us racism, arguably the original sin that lies at the heart of American democracy, is the line that may not be crossed. Which means that I also understand the reticence of our Missouri House members to speak out – Republicans in general, not just in Missouri, have been calling out to more or less covert racism via code words and dogwhistles for years.What can these already compromised politicians do or say to credibly face down the beast they have enabled and continue to enable in order to benefit their wealthy patrons.
Of course that last sentence doesn’t even address the possibility that many of our elected Missouri representative may actually endorse Trump’s nasty racial sentiments.

 

 

Observations about our racist President’s potty-mouth outburst

12 Friday Jan 2018

Posted by willykay in Uncategorized

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Africa, Africans, Donald Trump, Haiti, Haitians, immigration, Norway, Norwegians

Plenty of folks have already pointed out that President Racist Moron’s labeling of poor countries populated with mostly brown people as “sh**thole countries” only serves to undeniably confirm the racism he has never really troubled to hide. But there’s more than just the racism that we all already knew about at play here. There’s rank stupidity as well. And I don’t just mean the type of stupidity that allows Trump blurt out any ugly, id-driven morsel of thought that manages to make it to his forebrain and out his mouth – we’re used to that as well. There’s the follow-up to the “sh**hole” statement wherein the President asks why we don’t bring in immigrants from Norway instead. Yeah! As if.

Evidently no one told him Norwegians have got lots more going for them than being white (and there’s no doubt that the Racist-in-Chief thinks that’s the big thing). As Paul Thornton notes in the Los Angeles Times:

Trump reportedly wanted to know why Norway doesn’t send more of its people to the United States, evidently unaware that his (accurate) opinion of that country as better than a dump pretty much answers the question he asked: The Scandinavian social democracy, as its two linguistically similar neighbors do, has a higher per-capita GDP, life expectancy and, for what it’s worth, “happiness” rating than the United States. It also has universal healthcare, a ridiculously large sovereign wealth fund and top-notch infrastructure.

Actually, there are plenty of Americans who might like to think about immigrating to one or the other of the Scandinavian countries as Trump and his GOP enablers continue their effort to disassemble decades of social progress in this country. As Thornton observes, “in fact, the Norwegian Americans I know often share stories of Googling citizenship requirements — hoping there’s some kind of loophole for the grandchildren or even great-grandchildren of emigrants — when they return to the States after a visit to the Old Country.”

After spending some time in Sweden in the eighties, I had much the same response. And times were better here then than now under the demonstrably non compos mentis Trump and the Koch/crony controlled GOP Congress. (And, no, Muslim immigrants are not inciting the type of wholesale chaos in Scandinavia that has been claimed by Trump and the Breitbart crowd.)

Trump wants Norwegians in the U.S.? Try taking back his tax cut for the rich, increase minimum wage, institute a single-payer healthcare system, invest “bigly” in infrastructure and education, restore regulations that protect the environment, road safety, public lands – and while he’s at it, he could throw out the various crooks and corporate shills he’s installed in his cabinet and put in charge of agencies that are supposed to work for the public welfare, not the corporate donors who are rewriting the rules to benefit themselves.

Maybe he could import some Norwegians to help the process along. They, after all, know how it’s done.

 

DACA, what DACA?

02 Tuesday Jan 2018

Posted by Michael Bersin in social media

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

25th Amendment, ACLU, DACA, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, Donald Trump, gaslighting, immigration, social media, Twitter

Gaslighting from the occupant of the White House.

Demonstration in support of DACA – Kansas City – September 5, 2017.

One of this morning’s many delusional tweets from Donald Trump (r):

Donald J. Trump‏ @realDonaldTrump
Democrats are doing nothing for DACA – just interested in politics. DACA activists and Hispanics will go hard against Dems, will start “falling in love” with Republicans and their President! We are about RESULTS.
9:16 AM – 2 Jan 2018

He thinks we’re all stoopit.

DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) was the Obama era directive giving close to 800,000 individuals who entered the country as undocumented minors deferred action on deportation.

A reply from the ACLU.

ACLU‏ @ACLU
Reminder: You ended DACA.
[….]
9:57 AM – 2 Jan 2018

On September 5, 2017:

Statement from President Donald J. Trump
Immigration
Issued on: September 5, 2017
[….]
…the Department of Homeland Security will begin an orderly transition and wind-down of DACA, one that provides minimum disruption. While new applications for work permits will not be accepted, all existing work permits will be honored until their date of expiration up to two full years from today. Furthermore, applications already in the pipeline will be processed, as will renewal applications for those facing near-term expiration. This is a gradual process, not a sudden phase out. Permits will not begin to expire for another six months, and will remain active for up to 24 months…
[….]

So, republicans control the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate. There’s a republican administration in the White House.

“…Democrats are doing nothing for DACA…”

Yep, gaslighting.

Previously:

In support of DACA – Kansas City – September 5, 2017 (September 5, 2017)

Don’t think 2018 is going to be any better. (January 1, 2018)

In support of DACA – Kansas City – September 5, 2017

05 Tuesday Sep 2017

Posted by Michael Bersin in Resist

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

DACA, Donald Trump, immigration, Jeff Sessions, Kansas City, missouri, protest, Resist

Today the Trump administration announced it was rescinding DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), the Obama era directive giving close to 800,000 individuals who entered the country as undocumented minors deferred action on deportation. It was a humane policy.

This evening close to three hundred individual gathered at Mill Creek Park at the entrance to the Plaza to express their support for the continuation of DACA.

“No human is illegal”

Dreamer not Criminal”

“You belong here”

“No RSVP on the Statue of Liberty”

“Fire the liar”

“Here to stay”

Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D) – Immigration Town Hall in Kansas City – press Q and A – February 4, 2017

05 Sunday Feb 2017

Posted by Michael Bersin in Uncategorized

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Donald Trump, Emanuel Cleaver, immigration, Kansas City, missouri, town hall

“…Well, what I, what I hope Americans understand is he did this all through the campaign. He mocked a judge of, uh, of Mexican descent and, and, and said that the judge couldn’t be fair. Uh, you know, but he won the presidency anyway. So, uh, there are some, some deep seated issues in the, with the American public that, that also must be, uh, eventually addressed. Uh, whatever the president’s doing right now, he did in the, during the campaign. He’s done nothing new. Mocking judges, mocking the disabled, he will continue to do that because there are no negative consequences…”

“…failure, uh, is not just not getting your way. Failure is identifying wrong and doing nothing about it and saying nothing about it. And so one of the things we’ve got to do is to speak out and speak up. Uh, arm the American public with as much in the way of facts as we can, uh, and awareness. And this has to be a teaching moment for the people of the United States.”

Early yesterday afternoon in Kansas City Representative Emanuel Cleaver (D) held an immigration town hall at the Manual Career and Technical Center.

Representative Cleaver met with the media before the start of the town hall. After his opening remarks he took questions.

Representative Emanuel Cleaver (D) - February 4, 2017 - Kansas City.

Representative Emanuel Cleaver (D) – February 4, 2017 – Kansas City.

The press Q and A:

The transcript:

Representative Emanuel Cleaver (D): Any questions?

Question: President Trump calls this extreme vetting, he’s trying to protect the country. I, I imagine a lot of Americans feel at least they want to keep America safe. But what’s the better alternative here, rather than banning everyone from these countries?

Representative Cleaver: This is, let me try to use a very proper term, ignorant. The, the seven countries, uh, that have been targeted, uh, in northern Africa, uh, and in the middle east, uh, to this date have never sent a citizen over here or a citizen has never been immigrated over here who’s committed a terrorist attack. None of those nations were, uh, involved, uh, in nine-eleven. In fact, uh, most of the, the terrorists who are responsible for over three thousand deaths in New York on nine-eleven came from Saudi Arabia. So, uh, these nations were, for some weird reason, just randomly selected. They all happen to be majority Muslim, uh, nations but there’s, there’s no logic in this. These are not the nations that sent people over here to commit a single act of terror in the United Sates.

Question: We’ve heard that for the last two to three weeks. But, nothing’s changed. It seems, it seems like you turn on the tube and things get worse instead of better. We don’t see the Democrats actually making, making, suggesting maybe we get together with Trump or that, that the leaders of the GOP. But they’re hearing the same thing week after week after week. And again, like I said earlier, it gets worse.

Representative Cleaver: Yes. Well, um, we have a, a malfunctioning government. We have, we’ve had it for some time now. Uh, what the people in this country I think are going to eventually realize is that power is a, is a, is a significant aphrodisiac. And, uh, everything that’s going on in Washington is based on power. Uh, there are members of Congress who I thought would, would never stand still to watch something like this happen. But, just think about this, if you’re in the majority in the House and the Senate and you have the White House you can do absolutely any and everything you want. Uh, you know, Democrats can stand up in line, say we’re gonna stop, uh, this or we can stop that. The truth of the matter is they have the votes. The most powerful person in Washington has never been the president, at least in modern times. It’s the Speaker of the House. The president doesn’t have a vote, he can’t introduce legislation. Uh, it’s the Speaker of the House. And, uh, Speaker of the House has not chosen at this time, uh, to address this issue, uh, in favor of, of bringing some calm to the nation.

Question: A lot of folks are coming here today, they’re looking for answers. And you don’t have a lot of answers for them.

Representative Cleaver: Oh, we have a lot of answers for them. We’re going to give them legal answers about what they can do if they’re stopped. Uh, we, we have answers, uh, to questions about how far people can go, uh, in terms of intimidating them, what is legal and what is not legal. We’re going to arm them with the law so that, uh, when and if things happen, uh, they will be able to respond.

Look, during the campaign, um, President Trump said over and over and over again that he was going to repeal the executive order, uh, on DACA. I believe it. He’s done everything he’s said he’s gonna do. So that’s going to come. So these students, these young people need to know what the law is. Thy need to know what, uh, people can do. That’s, that’s what our office is being bombarded with – questions from people saying what, what can I do.

We have the Mexican Counsel here, we have ACLU here, uh, we have, uh, constitutional lawyers here, we have people who can answer those questions. And so, they will be, uh, armed, uh, with, with how to respond. Now, in terms of us lying to them, saying we can stop it, I, I’m not going to, to do that cause I, that, that’s the part that I think has caused people to hate Washington is when, uh, people stand up and say they can do something that they know they can’t do. And we know that we can’t do this. Uh, but, but we want people to know, for example, the, the government has issued a, uh, a freeze on, uh, federal employees. On the surface that doesn’t seem like a big deal. It does. We, we’re one of the largest, uh, federal centers in the world. Uh, we have almost twelve thousand federal workers right here in Kansas City. So how does this fit with this whole immigration issue? Little known and never reported, I’ve never seen a single line reported anywhere. The, the president in his executive order has, uh, commissioned Homeland Security to hire ten thousand, ten thousand new agents to deal with, uh, investigations and referrals for deportation. Ten thousand people will be hired. Now, people need to know that who are out cheering this, this whole thing that, that, uh, this is good for the country, as I heard a man say on TV this morning. Uh, but, when, when people get all the information and, and it’s difficult to get it out because of the, uh, we don’t have the, any centrality any more in terms of news. But, we gotta get information out so people understand. People are cheering, I’m glad they’re gonna stop those bureaucrats, uh, from getting hired. Ten thousand people hired to deal with this issue. Ten thousand.

[….]

Question: …answered the first part of this question, but, what are some alternatives that you’re talking about here that will also make people feel safe? What are the other options?

Representative Cleaver: Knowing the law. Knowing the law. Is what makes people, will make people feel safe. Uh, because we’re not gonna give them, uh, any, uh, erroneous information. Uh, we have people here, coming here today who care. Uh, [Representative] Luis Gutiérrez from Chicago who’s been the preeminent leader in this issue is going to be the first, uh, person coming on, uh, to talk with, with, well, I’ve had him here before. uh, good friend of mine. I, I’m not sure that there’s anything, uh, more, more, uh, important than, uh, accurate information about what, uh, can happen to a person. And if something happens, what they will need to do.

Question: But Trump doesn’t seem to know the law.

Representative Cleaver: Well Trump doesn’t, um, um, I, I try to be real respectful of the Office of the Presidency. Um, um, I’m not sure, that based on everything we know, that Mr. Trump even was, uh, involved in the writing of the executive order. Um, what we, what we’ve been, what we found out is that the staff, uh, of the Judiciary Committee was summoned to the White House to, to, uh, help draft this. And they did so without informing Congressman Goodlatte who is the chair of the, the, uh, Judiciary Committee.

So, um, I, I, I’m the kind of person, I’m not, I don’t want people to come up here and say, no, we’re gonna be on today with information that will prevent anything bad from happening to us. Uh, but what we will be able to do is give people, uh, valuable information to prevent some things from happening and, if those things happen, the steps they need to take, uh, for us to get, uh, a, a proper response.

This issue is not going to be settled until it appears before the Supreme Court. Because the president has already instructed, uh, yesterday, the Justice Department, uh, to challenge, uh, the, the court rulings. So, uh, the president wants to continue to move and move and move. He’s not going to back up. Uh, and we, we will be smart, we’re smart if we understand that the president is going to do everything he said he was going to do.

Question: What do you think of the president’s [inaudible] criticism and, and even mocking of the federal judge who is holding up the travel ban?

Representative Cleaver: Well, what I, what I hope Americans understand is he did this all through the campaign. He mocked a judge of, uh, of Mexican descent and, and, and said that the judge couldn’t be fair. Uh, you know, but he won the presidency anyway. So, uh, there are some, some deep seated issues in the, with the American public that, that also must be, uh, eventually addressed. Uh, whatever the president’s doing right now, he did in the, during the campaign. He’s done nothing new. Mocking judges, mocking the disabled, he will continue to do that because there are no negative consequences.

Question: What’s the takeaway [crosstalk] for the people who want to know what they can do that maybe they’re not immigrants or they’re not legal immigrants? This is Jackson County, let’s be honest, we’re kind of preaching to the choir. What do you want all those folks to do or to, you know, what’s their takeaway?

Representative Cleaver: Well, you know, we lost an election, being a Democrat, but, uh, failure, uh, is not just not getting your way. Failure is identifying wrong and doing nothing about it and saying nothing about it. And so one of the things we’ve got to do is to speak out and speak up. Uh, arm the American public with as much in the way of facts as we can, uh, and awareness. And this has to be a teaching moment for the people of the United States.

Media.

Media.

20170204-606a3747

Previously:

Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D) – Immigration Town Hall in Kansas City – press statement – February 4, 2017 (February 5, 2017)

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