00:00Senator Blumenthal, Representative Garcia, and to all my colleagues here for participating,
00:05and especially to all the witnesses who are here.
00:10My heart goes out to you for what you have been through,
00:13but despite it all, you're trying to channel some of that experience
00:17and a lot of that anger, that righteous anger, towards raising awareness.
00:22The whole country needs to better understand what's really going on out there.
00:28I've had my own experience this year,
00:33and one of the things that I hope for is that these tough and trying experiences for ourselves,
00:39for our families, for everybody around us, can somehow do good by raising awareness
00:45for people who weren't paying attention, for people who were paying attention,
00:48but maybe not enough to care, to finally care about what's going on,
00:51because it's morally wrong in addition to being unlawful and unconstitutional.
00:57So I appreciate your willingness and your courage to be here and to share your stories.
01:03I know there's a good number of Californians on the panel,
01:08so thank you for the opportunity to be your voice here in the Senate.
01:12As I've shared with all my colleagues, it started in California,
01:15but we knew then that Los Angeles, greater Los Angeles era was just a test case for the administration.
01:21They learned some lessons there and then tried to be more aggressive and more cruel,
01:27as we've seen over the months here in Washington, D.C., and Chicago and Portland,
01:31North Carolina and New Orleans and elsewhere,
01:34and it's going to continue until we hold this lawless administration accountable,
01:38because what they're doing isn't just trying to stoke fear for undocumented immigrants,
01:44but we've seen the proof.
01:45It's lawful immigrants to, and even United States citizens, including veterans.
01:54First of all, I want to acknowledge I was trying to follow your opening statements remotely.
02:01I was simultaneously in a Judiciary Subcommittee hearing,
02:04but we've read the testimony you submitted in writing.
02:07I don't want to be repetitive of the questions that some of my colleagues have already asked.
02:11They've already asked you to share more about what happened to you or how it's made you feel,
02:15how it's impacted your life.
02:16So let me actually give you all the microphone.
02:20You're already addressing questions from House members and from senators.
02:25If you had the administration up here, if you had Donald Trump,
02:29if you had the Secretary of Homeland Security,
02:32if you had other officials from the Trump administration up here,
02:36what would you tell them?
02:37And maybe we can start with Mr. Gretzis and go down the line.
02:45Oh, God.
02:46What would I tell them?
02:47I would tell them...
02:49That's a good question.
02:54I would tell them, is this what they want?
02:56I would ask them if this is what they wanted, if this was their goal.
03:00Are we just accidents that just happened and you don't really care for?
03:05Was this your goal to begin with?
03:09And so I guess I would have more questions than I would say anything else.
03:17Ms. Figueroa?
03:23Well, I would tell them that I refuse ICE Nazis to rewrite my story
03:28and I refuse to let my son grow up in a country where masked federal agents can assault women in broad daylight.
03:35There has to be accountability and transparency and change.
03:40Mr. Traveria?
03:41I would say that we've seen this before.
03:45We see it right through you.
03:47We've seen leaders dehumanize entire communities, entire races, entire peoples.
03:54And we know why you dehumanize us.
04:00And I would say we will come out of this and we will come out of it stronger
04:04and the losers will be the people who are doing the dehumanizing.
04:08And I would say shame on you because injustice is a circle
04:12and it will reach your children.
04:14It will reach your families.
04:16It will reach your communities.
04:17When you violate the rights of the least powerful, you're sowing injustice for yourself in the future.
04:29Ms. Dulles?
04:31I would ask them that if, are we great because I don't think we are?
04:37And stop using immigrants as your scapegoat for everything, for all the problems that are happening
04:43because it's not us, it's not the immigrants.
04:47Mr. Ramirez?
04:49I would tell them that if, it should be a shame of ourselves.
04:55If, I don't want to raise my kids, you know, in America where they have to be careful, you know,
05:01just by being their skin color, it should be a shame.
05:05And if, is this making America great again?
05:11Mr. Velenic, I know you come to this conversation from a different perspective,
05:14given your role and expertise.
05:15Let me ask you a different question.
05:17This will be my final.
05:21The argument from the administration is that they're going after the worst of the worst.
05:24We see in reality that that's far from the case.
05:27The fear and intimidation they've stoked in so many communities across the country is clear in my mind.
05:35Has this mass deportation agenda made any community or a country safer?
05:40There's no evidence that this is making us more safe.
05:43In fact, it's the other way around.
05:45I've testified in front of Congress on this issue before.
05:48By diverting resources away from child exploitation,
05:52by turning ICE Homeland Security investigations into just one other arm of ICE's enforcement and removal operations,
05:59they are making us less safe.
06:00They are taking counterterrorism operatives and telling them to go out on the street and arrest migrants.
06:06They're taking people whose job it is to investigate pedophiles preying on children
06:11and telling those officers to go round up dishwashers instead.
06:14And that doesn't make us safer.
06:16Thank you all again very much.
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