LEADER JEFFRIES IN HOUSTON: “THE MASS DEPORTATION MACHINE UNLEASHED BY DONALD TRUMP HAS GOT TO END”

Today, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries joined Reps. Sylvia Garcia (TX-29) and Christian Menefee (TX-18) in Houston's Segundo Barrio for a press conference about House Democrats' commitment to ending ICE's reign of terror that is brutalizing our immigrant communities and hurting the economy.

LEADER JEFFRIES: It's an honor and a privilege to be back in Houston. […] It was a very informative roundtable where we heard about the brutality and the fear that Trump's violent mass deportation machine has been creating here in Houston, similar to what has gone on all across the country. Taxpayer dollars should be used to make life more affordable for the people here in America, not to brutalize and kill American citizens or violently target and kill law-abiding immigrant communities, as was the case horrifically here in Houston just a few months ago. We believe that immigration enforcement should be fair, just and humane. The Trump administration promised that immigration enforcement was going to target violent felons. That's not what's happening. The mass deportation machine unleashed by Donald Trump has been targeting law-abiding immigrant communities like those here in Houston, and it's got to end.

Everything has become more expensive here in America because of Donald Trump's failed and toxic policies. The One Big Ugly Bill ripped away Medicaid from the American people. The One Big Ugly Bill enacted the largest cut to nutritional assistance, $186 billion, in American history, and at the same period of time gave ICE a $75 billion slush fund so that these taxpayer dollars could be used to brutalize and kill American citizens and law-abiding immigrant communities. It's unacceptable, unconscionable and un-American. And as House Democrats, we're committed to getting the situation turned around. We know we have a broken immigration system. We know it needs to be fixed in a comprehensive and bipartisan way.

I'm thankful for the leadership of Sylvia Garcia in pushing forward with the Dream and Promise Act. That is just the beginning of what needs to happen in terms of [ending] this national nightmare that the people here in Houston and all across America have been experiencing and get to a much better place here in the United States of America, which will certainly include dramatic change as it relates to immigration enforcement and our continued commitment not to give a dime to Donald Trump's violent mass deportation machine.

The Leader's full remarks from the press conference can be watched here.

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