At last Tuesday’s town hall in Capitol Hill, Seattle, Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal addressed a packed crowd, highlighting the urgent need for a functional immigration system that hasn’t been updated in 30 years. She stated that Democrats have proposed to modernize the immigration system to attract talent, welcome international students, and embrace contributions from around the world. MTG captures her key points.
“There has to be a demon, a villain to blame, in the story. They decided they wanted to blame the immigrants and trans people. Well, immigrants and transkids didn’t raise your rents; billionaires did. Immigrants and trans kids are not responsible for not being able to buy groceries or make sure they make their payments on prescription drugs. “
“If someone has been living in the country for a decade, hasn’t committed a crime, and has been working – there should be a legal pathway to citizenship. The immigration system has not been fixed for 30 years.”
“That’s how I came to the United States. I was 16 years old when I came here by myself because my parents believed that this was the country where I would have the best future. And that ability to generate that kind of passion from people around the world who want to come to the United States is an incredible gift for Americans for those immigrants.”
“The idea that our votes actually matter, that our democracy is not bought by big money. It is the idea that you and I are the power that drive the country. The power doesn’t flow from the top, it flows from the bottom up and that’s the vision that I am fighting forward with”
Big bad betrayal bill
It is a betrayal of working people across this country, all to facilitate the largest transfer of wealth from the poorest to the richest. That bill was passed in the middle of the night; we were voting all night long. The Republicans claimed they hadn’t even read it, yet they voted for it. It kicked 16 million Americans off health care – that is between people who were kicked off of Medicaid.
In Washington State, we are so branded by Apple Health Care. Apple Health is 60 percent funded by Medicaid. It is a Medicaid-funded program. So 16 million people were cut off from Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act. Additionally, a $300 million cut to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Snap is a program that provides $2 per person per meal to those in need of food. This cut in the budget is the largest ever – a $ 300 million cut – in the wealthiest country in the world for nutrition assistance.
This big, bad betrayal bill also sets up a $500 billion cut to Medicare. It implements mandatory funding cuts on non-discretionary programs, such as Social Security. The bill also contains over a trillion dollars in Pentagon spending. Pentagon is the only federal agency that has never passed an audit. It has actually failed seven audits. If you talk about going after waste, fraud, and abuse, how about going to the Pentagon?
Immigrants’ contribution to Social Security
Immigrants, both documented and undocumented, contribute enormous amounts of money to social security. If you’re on social security now, you can partially thank immigrants in this country. Because they don’t get to pull anything out, if they are undocumented, they just contribute to your social security.
LGBTQIA+
A trans person the other day said they want to exterminate us out of existence. I’ll do everything in my way to fight back. Everyone belongs here, and we are not going to allow for the erasure and extermination of our brothers, sisters, siblings, friends, and neighbors.
ICE Agents
I questioned Marco Rubio “Why are you sending masked men to snatch people off the streets?” He said because the agents are afraid of what the people are going to do. They go after the worst criminals who are armed and dangerous, and they don’t wear masks for those. Are you really telling me that you’re scared of the student who disagrees with you? They don’t want people to know who they are. HSI (Homeland Security Investigation) sends the ICE agents.
The sharing of social security information with ICE means that a lot of immigrants, including legal immigrants, don’t want to pay their taxes because they don’t want that information about where they live in the books. Certainly, undocumented immigrants don’t want to. Now people are saying – wait a second – I am contributing money, and you are using that to deport me.
My belief is that the secret theory is – that they would like for undocumented and legal immigrants to stop contributing to Social Security so that it hurts the solvency of Social Security so they can then make the argument to get rid of Social Security. They talk about this over and over again as if it’s an entitlement program; it’s not an entitlement program; it is an earned benefit program – you pay into it.
Immigration courts
The government is now dismissing immigration cases after the person appears for the hearings. Even though they have appeared in court, gone through the process, and done everything they were asked to do. They are showing up for the hearings. The government appears and states that we’re moving to dismiss, which means the case is no longer valid. This now means they’re being deported, and they’re being picked up right there. That’s how they are deporting all these people who have gone through the legal proceedings. People show up thinking that, finally, I am getting my day in court, and finally, I will be able to say that I prepared my case as you said. And they just dismissed their cases, adopting a new method to expedite their removal – a swift deportation of those individuals.
They are also targeting individuals who are legal permanent residents or have legal status but have committed a crime. Maximo Londonio, a Filipino national who holds a U.S. Green Card and is married to a US citizen, he committed a crime when he was 19; he did his time, and he’s now 42; nothing has happened during that period, and they arrested him for the crime he committed when he was 19 even though he did his time so they are using every means possible to go after people that includes at least 4 US citizens, I know of 4, I am sure there are many more.
Circular migration
Before border walls, there was a system where people would come in, work for a specified period, and then leave. Not everyone wants to go to America and stay, believe it or not. But people do want to take care of their families. There used to be a lot of transitory migration; people would come every two years, and now they have a whole community that lives there because they can’t come and go as they please.
Let’s have a proposal that offers numerous legal pathways for people to come here and work, obtain their visas, and be reunited with their families. Yes, we do have to take care of undocumented immigrants, but it’s unfair for people who have been living in the US for decades. A US citizen who is married to an undocumented immigrant should be able to get them documented. That is the proposal we have on the table.
‘No Kings’ Rally success
Five million people attending ‘no kings’ rallies. There were approximately 2,300 rallies and protests nationwide. In Seattle, 70,000 people showed up. If we can achieve sustained, non-violent resistance and non-cooperation, and if we can maintain those protests over time at a level of 3.5 percent of the total population. That is what is most effective in taking down authoritarian and dictators. And five million is half of that 3.5 percent.
How will we win The House back?
When addressing a question from a concerned citizen about winning back the House, Jayapal said that the Democratic Party isn’t just an opposition party; it’s also a proposition party. One in three Americans have medical debt, and the United States has a total of $220 billion in medical debt. People around the world who get cancer don’t go bankrupt because of it; that only happens in the United States.
We need to have a proposal around universal healthcare, specifically for Medicare for All. We have to draw people to us, fighting back, fighting forward. We need to have a list of things that make it clear to people that we will take care of their social security through the SS2100 Act, a legislative proposal aimed at strengthening and expanding Social Security benefits. It raises the cap so that people start to pay their share. We need that clear proposition agenda, and it’s how we can win back the House.
Maheen Mustafa reported the feature. She is a social impact journalist, global strategist, and founder of MTG, a Seattle-based media outlet and production house that aims to elevate and amplify the narratives and perspectives of BIPOC and immigrants through impactful storytelling. Maheen’s beats include social impact, wellness, culture, climate, race, and global news (@MaheenM_)