Opposing Illegal Power Grabs

Floor Speech

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Mr. ESPAILLAT. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in opposition to the Trump administration's illegal power grabs.

Through executive orders, the Trump administration continues to circumvent Congress and violate the checks and balances of our three branches of government. He also continues to ignore court orders, including from the highest Court in the land, the U.S. Supreme Court, inching every day closer and closer to a constitutional crisis.

Mr. Speaker, in addition, Senate and House Republicans have made it clear time and time again that they have no interest in holding the President accountable to the American people and the Constitution of the United States of America, leaving the judicial branches of government as our strongest tool, leaving the courts as our only hope.

Within hours of taking office, President Trump issued an executive order that would have unlawfully denied birthright citizenship, which is guaranteed to everyone born in America by the 14th Amendment. He did this although this principle has been affirmed by the courts on numerous occasions. Currently, the courts have halted this executive order, citing how unconstitutional it is. More than 200 Democrats filed an amicus brief against this executive order when it was challenged in court. This attempt has been successfully halted.

In February, over a dozen religious organizations filed a lawsuit. These organizations sued the Department of Homeland Security after the administration rescinded guidance that would prevent immigration enforcement in sensitive locations, like schools, hospitals, and houses of worship.

Mr. Speaker, you could be praying at a church or in a synagogue or temple, and immigration enforcement could bust in to arrest somebody as they pray to their God. They tried to implement this aggressive practice, and yet people have gone to the courts for relief.

This echoes my own bill, H.R. 1061, Protecting Sensitive Locations Act, which would codify the Biden-era guidance. More than 70 of my Democratic colleagues have joined to support this legislation. Democrats have been hard at work to support ongoing legal cases by joining our amicus briefs.

When the Trump administration tried to dismantle the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the agency that provides relief to consumers, 200 Democrats filed an amicus brief when it went to court. The amicus brief was cited by the judge in the decision, pausing the dismantling of this important bureau.

Mr. Speaker, after one of Trump's latest crackdowns on scientific research at universities, Harvard filed a lawsuit against the administration, arguing that its freezing of research funding is unconstitutional and flatly unlawful.

Though undocumented families and small businesses were explicitly encouraged for decades by government and legal counsel to come forward out of the darkness and pay their taxes through their ITIN number, the Trump administration is now trying to target this data to carry out his mass deportation plan.

This is not just an immigration issue; this is a privacy issue. Taxpayer privacy is key to our democracy. That is why, as chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, I led the CHC in an amicus brief on this legislation. More than 100 Democrats have signed on.

It is clear through his actions and his words that President Trump has no interest in upholding the Constitution and granting every American the due process that they are owed. There has been a longstanding tradition of underrepresented communities resorting to the judicial system when all else has failed to hold larger, richer, and more powerful entities accountable.

We must continue the fight to uphold the right to due process. We must fight to continue to hold the Trump administration accountable. We must preserve our system of checks and balances. Not to do so would damage the balance of power and permanently fracture our democracy.

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