Pramila Jayapal: Trump Admin. Is 'Stripping People Of The Constitutional Protection To Free Speech'

2 days ago

At Tuesday's House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing, Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) accused the Trump Administration of attacking free speech.

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00:00You go back to Jersey and time has expired.

00:02With that, Representative Jayapal is recognized for five minutes.

00:06Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

00:07It is the height of hypocrisy for Republicans to hold a hearing on the so-called censorship industrial complex

00:15and the need for, quote, First Amendment safeguards at the State Department

00:21when President Trump and Elon Musk are launching the largest attack on free speech in America in decades.

00:29Let's be clear. The administration is right now stripping people of the constitutional protection to free speech,

00:37to the right to dissent, to express their views if they're counter to Trump and Musk,

00:41to use Cold War-era statutes and ignore judicial rulings,

00:46all to suit their purpose of squashing fundamental American freedoms.

00:51And they have said they are bending institutions to their will.

00:55The Trump administration is using that awesome power of government that was just spoken about,

01:01of the federal government, to intimidate and neuter any opposition from the legal establishment,

01:07academia, prominent cultural institutions, the media, the judiciary.

01:12Essentially, they want to strip your American freedoms for their right to have absolute power.

01:19Instead of focusing on the fabricated censorship of conservatives, let's talk about real threats to free speech.

01:25This month, Secretary Rubio launched, quote, Catch and Revoke,

01:29a horrifying program fueled by AI to monitor student visa holders' social media accounts

01:36for pro-Palestinian views and mark them for deportation, saying, quote,

01:40every time I find one of these lunatics, I take away their visas.

01:44Like many Americans, I have watched in horror as students with legal status,

01:49legal permanent residence, have been detained for exercising their right to free speech,

01:54like Mahmoud Khalil, who was snatched from his home in front of his pregnant U.S. citizen wife.

02:00This is the playbook of authoritarians and dictators, and no matter how you feel about this issue,

02:07we should all be horrified by this violation of free speech protections.

02:12Ms. Jankowitz, to clarify for my Republican colleagues, just a yes or no is fine.

02:16Is it true that the Constitution guarantees lawful permanent residence the right to free speech?

02:21Yes, ma'am, it's true.

02:22And is it true that engaging in peaceful protests is protected by the First Amendment?

02:26That's right, Congresswoman.

02:28The Trump administration is relying on Cold War-era language in the Immigration and Nationality Act

02:33to strip students of green cards by claiming that their speech has somehow had ambiguous, quote,

02:39foreign policy consequences for the United States.

02:42This law has been on the books since 1952, and to my knowledge, it has never been used in this way.

02:49Since then, we've seen students exercise their right to protest against the Vietnam War,

02:54for the Civil Rights Movement, against apartheid.

02:57Ms. Jankowitz, is there anything that makes this moment substantively different

03:01than other protests that we've seen on campuses when the authority has not been used?

03:06No, ma'am, it does not.

03:07And in fact, there's Supreme Court precedent that extends First Amendment rights

03:11to legal residents of the United States that I think was decided in 1953.

03:17And in addition to weaponizing the immigration system to silence protective free speech,

03:22reports indicate that the Trump administration is planning to block colleges

03:25from accepting any foreign students if the school is deemed to, quote,

03:30pro-Hamas simply for allowing legal protest and freedom of expression on their grounds.

03:35As an expert that you are on authoritarian regimes, how do these attacks on higher education

03:41mirror the repression that you have observed by authoritarian dictators,

03:45and why should all Americans be concerned about this?

03:48Thank you for the question, Congresswoman.

03:50This is exactly the sort of thing that I've observed when I was studying in Russia.

03:53I'm now banned from going to Russia.

03:55When you look at the Hungarian regime and authoritarian regime,

03:59which has also cracked down on dissent, it's closed universities.

04:04Belarus also closed a university that was, you know, somewhere where dissidents

04:09and civil society figures studied.

04:12The right to free speech is the right to free speech,

04:14no matter if people are expressing opinions you don't like or not.

04:17That right extends to legal residents, and I certainly hope it extends to the folks

04:21we are inviting here, Fulbright students and others to come study in our country

04:25to understand our values.

04:27How can we project those values if we're turning them on their heads

04:30and arresting people for using them themselves?

04:33And what happens when a president, an executive, uses his or her authority

04:39to literally destroy all of the institutions that are supposed to be checks and balances

04:44on total power?

04:46What effect does that have on U.S. citizens who may not be legal permanent residents,

04:51or obviously not legal permanent residents, or not visa holders?

04:54What effect does that have on the regular American that's out there listening?

04:58Congresswoman, I think there's a chilling effect.

05:00I myself have spoken with people, students, people of color, women,

05:05who are now afraid to speak up and voice their opinions online and off

05:10because of what's happening on campuses today.

05:12This is a slippery slope, and we all should be calling it out.

05:15I yield back, Mr. Chairman.

Pramila Jayapal: Trump Admin. Is 'Stripping People Of The Constitutional Protection To Free Speech'

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