Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., former chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, told Newsmax on Monday that the Trump administration is inflaming the situation in Los Angeles by showing a one-sided view of the demonstrations against raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and by calling in the National Guard and Marines.
“The administration is trying to create a violent situation, and to show pictures of only the people who are committing violence and not of the vast, vast, vast majority of people who are there peacefully protesting,” Jayapal told Newsmax congressional correspondent Kilmeny Duchardt during a protest on Monday outside the Department of Justice in Washington.
Jayapal, a liberal Democrat, was joined at the rally by hundreds of people, including teachers union leaders, who were protesting the arrest Friday of David Huerta, president of the California chapter of the Service Employees International Union, in connection with demonstrating in downtown Los Angeles against the ICE raids.
Huerta was reportedly released Monday on $50,000 bail.
Duchardt asked Jayapal about reports that House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., has threatened to expose the identities of masked ICE agents and called for Democrats to do “whatever it takes” to unmask those who arrested illegal immigrants, and whether those comments could compromise the safety of ICE agents.
“Look, we have always had our federal law enforcement, including HIS [Homeland Security Investigations], which is conducting many of these investigations,” Jayapal said. “They go after the worst cartel bosses in the country, dangerous people. They’ve never been masked. So, this idea that somehow they need to be masked and in these, you know, unidentified cars, to me, is ridiculous. And it really is about just scaring people.
“And it makes us look like some country that doesn’t have a democracy that just allows people to come and kidnap and disappear people off the streets.”
The Trump administration has defended its nationwide crackdown on illegal immigration, saying it is enforcing U.S. law by deporting people in the country illegally, as well as taking public safety threats — illegal aliens with criminal records and gang affiliations — off the streets.
Jayapal blamed the outbreak of violence in Los Angeles to “agitators from outside,” without offering specifics, and said she is an advocate for nonviolent protests.
“I condemn violence,” she said. “I’ve always been somebody who’s advocated for nonviolent protest. And I think we should all condemn violence. But we have to understand that there are sometimes a handful of people who are often not even from the protest movement. They’re agitators from outside that come in to try to tar a protest.
“And in any situation, law enforcement’s first job should be to de-escalate, and when you send military tanks in with people hanging off those tanks with tear gas and rubber bullets and you start firing at journalists and people who are just exercising their first amendment right to free speech, you have to stop and say what are they trying to do?”
Newsmax has reached out to the White House for comment.
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