00:00I'm Congressmember Judy Chu, and I stand with the ACLU and all of you here today to say no to President Trump's authoritarian takeover of my community of Los Angeles, of Washington, D.C., of Chicago, and any community across the country.
00:20I represent a district in Los Angeles County, and I want to tell you, it was just yesterday that U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer ruled that Trump's use of military troops in Los Angeles was illegal.
00:35Trump can act as a national police force with the president as its chief.
00:40He barred the Pentagon from using National Guard members and Marines for performing local police functions, like arrests and crowd control.
00:50In his 52-page ruling, he warned that Trump appears intent on creating a national police force with the president as its chief,
01:00and that by doing what he did, Trump violated a long-standing law meant to prevent domestic law enforcement by the military.
01:09Well, yesterday, I just returned from Los Angeles.
01:13That is where Trump sent 4,000 National Guardsmen and 700 Marines to our area when our local law enforcement had everything well under control.
01:26But why did he do it? Just for the purposes of intimidation.
01:31Of the 4,000 guards members in L.A., many were pulled away from the civilian roles that actually keep communities safe, like nurses, EMTs, teachers, service workers, food and agriculture workers.
01:45They were yanked from saving lives and serving neighbors just for Trump's political theater.
01:53He is ripping National Guard soldiers away from their jobs and families so he can trample on our constitutional rights and disappear our neighbors off the street.
02:04And it is a waste of your taxpayer dollars.
02:09This stunt is costing taxpayers tens of millions of dollars that could be used to expand health care, fund our schools or increase housing.
02:20So this is not about reducing crime or keeping our neighbors safe.
02:24It's about enacting the largest cut to health care in our nation's history and shoveling trillions of dollars in tax breaks to the ultra-rich.
02:37Donald Trump is needlessly deploying thousands of troops and tanks onto our street to distract from the harms that his policies are causing.
02:48Never before in our nation's history has the military been used in this way.
02:54These are the tactics of a dictatorship.
02:56And while this is going on, masked agents have flooded our streets.
03:02They are terrorizing people and they are refusing to identify themselves.
03:08It's all about intimidation, racial profiling and harassment.
03:13But we cannot let that happen, not in L.A., not here in D.C., not in Chicago, not in America.
03:20This ruling from yesterday shows just how important it is that we keep fighting against Trump's illegal and authoritarian actions here in Washington, D.C. and other major cities.
03:33Because when we keep fighting, we can win just as we did yesterday.
03:39So we will not be silenced.
03:41We stand with all Americans peacefully dissenting against this administration together in the streets, in the courts and in Congress.
03:50We will stop this authoritarian power grab.
03:58And now I'd like to introduce Congressman Glenn Ivey, who represents parts of Baltimore.
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