Three high-ranking House Democrats from New York on Tuesday condemned President Donald Trump for his deployment of the military to restore law and order in riot-torn Los Angeles.
At a House press conference, Congressional Black Caucus Chairwoman Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y.; Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chairman Adriano Espaillat, D-N.Y., and Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus Chairwoman Grace Meng, D-N.Y., made remarks about the protests of Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in L.A.
Clarke said the Democrats gathered for the press conference were outraged and characterized Trump’s decision to send the National Guard onto the streets of L.A. as illegal.
“President Trump’s unlawful decision to deploy the National Guard onto the streets of Los Angeles is a reckless and inflammatory escalation, one designed not to restore calm, but to provoke chaos,” the New York congresswoman declared.
“Don’t fall for the lie. This is not about protecting public safety. It’s about stoking fear and silencing peaceful dissent,” she contended.
Clarke argued that the Marines did not have the legal authority to engage in domestic law enforcement.
“But let me be clear, congressional Democrats stand in full solidarity with the residents of Los Angeles, with our immigrant sisters and brothers, and with the peaceful protesters who dare to speak out and who will support every effort to oppose this president’s abuse of power,” she said.
The New York congresswoman did caution demonstrators against resorting to violence at the anti-ICE protests in L.A.
“Trump wants violence, not to stop it, but to justify his own. Do not give him what he wants,” Clarke said.
The New York congresswoman said she thinks that Trump’s actions rose to the level of impeachable offenses.
The Daily Signal asked Clarke if she was worried that the American people want border enforcement and are not with her on the issue of illegal immigration.
“Well, first of all, the border has the lowest crossing in over the past 10 years right now. So, it’s not about border crossings,” Clarke said. Border crossings are down in large part due to the Trump administration’s enforcement of federal immigration laws.
“What we’re talking about are core constitutional values, due process, and this president has violated that, and so, notwithstanding winning an election, I don’t believe that any person of goodwill would see what is taking place across this nation and not be concerned about the way that this is being conducted,” she said.
“The violation of human rights, the lack of due process, and we’re beginning to see a shift in people who thought one thing about how Donald Trump was going to conduct his immigration policy, which was to go after violent criminals, and are now seeing their neighbors, their congregants, people they work with, being harassed, being disappeared, and being treated as subhuman,” Clarke told The Daily Signal.
When asked about criticism of the Democratic Party from one of its own, Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., over its response to the L.A. riots, Clarke said the Pennsylvania senator had a First Amendment right to his statement. One reporter raised the question of foreign political interference, claiming that Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum had described some of the protesters as heroes. Espaillat said that Sheinbaum also was entitled to her opinion.