Fighting Back Against Dismantling of Voting Rights

Floor Speech

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Mr. GARCIA of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I thank Representative Jackson for leading this Special Order hour for the Congressional Progressive Caucus, shining a spotlight on the Voting Rights Act, progress that has been made, and, most importantly, efforts to dismantle it and disenfranchise millions of people across the land and undermine our democracy.

Let me share a personal story. I arrived in the United States in 1965, the same year the Voting Rights Act was passed. I was a little boy from Durango, Mexico. I didn't speak a word of English, let alone know about the Constitution or the Founding Fathers, but I understood one thing: My parents believed in this country and brought me to this country because they knew that we could do better and that we could pursue our dream of a better life in America.

Years later, I became a citizen.

The Voting Rights Act gave me the opportunity I never dreamed possible: running for office. It was not because power invited me in, but because people in my community organized. We built power and exercised our right to vote. That is the magic of the Voting Rights Act.

Yet, it is precisely why Republicans have been working for decades to weaken our voting rights. When our opponents recently broke Black neighborhoods in Memphis into pieces, they knew exactly what they were doing. In Tennessee, Alabama, and Louisiana, getting rid of majority Black districts isn't accidental, either.

Heading to Court to make section 2 of the Voting Rights Act weaker, it is deliberate, and when Republicans push a bill that prevents married women from voting over name changes and restricts some eligible voters, that is their plan.

This is not election integrity. It is Klan tactics in a business suit, the Jim Crow school of law. They do not say ``literacy test'' anymore. They say: Bring us new paperwork. They don't say ``Whites only'' anymore. They say: Race neutral.

To them, fair means our communities can contribute to society by working and paying taxes, but we are not worthy enough to elect our own Representatives. It also means that you can pack, slice, and scatter Black and Latino voters, as long as those calling the shots label it smart politics.

Chicago's Latino community waited decades for real representation in Congress. The Fourth Congressional District of Illinois became the first Latino-majority congressional district in the Midwest because the Voting Rights Act had teeth and because our communities refused to disappear.

The only thing that they wanted was a level playing field, to be represented. We organized and won the Fourth Congressional District. Thirty years later, there is still just one other Latino in Congress from the whole Midwest region. She is a Latina, and I am proud to serve with her.

Representation matters, and that is why our opponents are attacking our voting rights. Nobody spends years in court trying to weaken voters who do not matter. They do not redraw maps because we are weak. They redraw maps because we are powerful. They fear Black power. They fear Latino power. They fear Asian power. They fear working people standing together and saying: We will not bow to white supremacy.

Right now, it is Black districts, but Latino districts are next, mark my words. Right now, it is Black districts, but Latino districts will follow.

They are coming after our power because they are afraid of what happens when working people stand together. I learned that from Harold Washington. Before he became Chicago's first Black mayor, Harold Washington served in this House of Representatives from the First District of Illinois, Representative Jackson, and helped to strengthen the Voting Rights Act. When I served with him as a member of the Chicago City Council, I saw true multiracial democracy come alive because of the Voting Rights Act.

So let's call the attack on working rights on voting rights for what it is: It is about power and control.

Our neighbors did not cross rivers and bridges, march in the streets, organize in church basements, fight in courtrooms, and knock on doors to sit down now.

I came here the year the Voting Rights Act became law. Sixty years later, I am here to say: We are not sitting down. We are not turning back. We will continue to work today for voting rights and representation for all.

I thank Congressman Jackson for raising his voice and the awareness for all of our American people to know.

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