Almost as shameful as the Act itself is the fact that so many Democrats in the House and Senate voted for it. Besides handing Donald Trump a big win that sends a signal that Dems can be steamrolled, the Act is a hideous piece of legislation. Naming it for a murder victim politicized by the right-wing is just as disgusting. But the worst thing is that it’s a hideous piece of legislation that no decent American should allow. It’s even more appalling that Republicans are trying to pass it after Donald Trump pardoned the violent Jan. 6 criminals who are now free to buy guns and further terrorize Americans.
Fortunately, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez stood up and powerfully spoke the whole truth on the House floor.
OCASIO-CORTEZ: Mr. Speaker, I want the American people to know, with eyes wide open, what is inside this bill. Because we stand here just two days after President Trump gave unconditional pardons to violent criminals who attacked our nation's capital on January 6th. And these are the people who want you to believe, who want us to believe that they're trying to, quote, unquote, keep criminals off the streets - when they are opening the floodgates.
I want the American people to know what is in this bill, because in the guise and in the in the wake of tragedy, we are seeing a fundamental erosion of our civil rights in this bill. If a person is so much as accused of a crime, if someone wants to point a finger and accuse someone of shoplifting, they will be rounded up and put into a private detention camp and sent out for deportation without a day in court, without a moment to assert their right and without a moment to assert the privilege of innocent until proven guilty, without being found guilty of a crime, they will be rounded up.
That is what is inside this bill, a fundamental suspension of a core American value, and that is why I rise to oppose it.
Ocasio-Cortez went on to rightly compare the Laken Riley Act to George W. Bush’s hated Patriot Act. While she was it, she drove home the MAGA hypocrisy on both crime and their supposed concern for fiscal responsibility.
You probably won’t be shocked to know the bill is also a money grab for the private prison industrial complex – who just happen to donate to the same folks who voted on their behalf.
OCASIO-CORTEZ: We have seen moments like these happen before, in the Patriot Act, in the wake of the travesty of 9/11, a fundamental suspension of American civil liberties. That is what we are seeing here today. Mr. Speaker, you may wonder why so many of our friends across the aisle who care so deeply about the rule of law happen to be so desperate to pass this bill, after they are unleashing people who attacked police officers here, on this Capitol, into roaming our streets, who are publicly saying now they want to get a gun. Suddenly, these folks care about public safety. I don't think so.
Look no further than the price tag of this bill, $83 billion. They know that it can't be paid for. They know that the capacity is not there. And you know what will be there? Private prison companies are going to get flooded with money. Who give this money, no doubt. I want folks at home to look. Look at what members of Congress are invested in private prison companies who receive this kind of money, and look at the votes on this bill. It is atrocious that people are lining their pockets with private prison profits in the name of a horrific tragedy and the victim of a crime. It is shameful. It is absolutely shameful.
Ocasio-Cortez closed by urging us all to remember who voted for this bill and not to let them pretend they didn’t know what they voted for.
OCASIO-CORTEZ: In a few months, there are members of Congress who voted for this bill who are going to pretend they didn't know about all the bad things that are going to happen because of it. … So, when a private prison camp opens in your town, and they say we didn't know this was going to happen, know that they did, and they voted for it.
When a Dreamer is disappeared from your classroom, when the president of the United States destroys what is left of the Constitution, as he's announced in this attack on birthright citizenship, they will all say we didn't know this was coming. And I want the American people to know that they did. This vote represents it.
Brava, Congresswoman. This is exactly the kind of passion and energy we need now.
