This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: A federal judge in Chicago questioned federal immigration authorities Monday about continuing to fire tear gas at protesters and journalists despite her previous court order. U.S. District Court Judge Sara Ellis ordered the government to preserve all video evidence of federal agents firing tear gas and pepper balls during protests against Trump’s escalating immigration crackdown in the Chicago area.
In one of the most dramatic instances, a masked ICE officer was filmed shooting a Chicago pastor in the head with a pepper ball while he prayed outside the Broadview ICE facility. The priest, David Black, is now part of a lawsuit against the Trump administration.
Over the weekend, more than a quarter of a million people rallied in Chicago for the “No Kings” protest. The rally stretched for two miles. Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson called for a general strike.
MAYOR BRANDON JOHNSON: Donald Trump is using ICE as his private militarized occupying force. The only other entities that are funded greater than ICE are the United States military and China’s military. But we are saying emphatically clear: We do not want troops in our city. We will not allow our cities to be occupied. So, here’s what we need to do in this moment. If my ancestors, as slaves, can lead the greatest general strike in the history of this country, taking it to the ultra-rich and big corporations, we can do the same today.
AMY GOODMAN: The No Kings protests came a day after the Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to allow the deployment of the National Guard in the Chicago area. Other speakers at Saturday’s No Kings protests included Democratic Congresswoman Delia Ramirez, whose district includes Chicago.
REP. DELIA RAMIREZ: They want to normalize violence. They want to normalize cruelty. They want us to be OK with what they’re doing, so that you won’t question what they do next. But let me be very clear to Donald Trump and all those criminals: You will not break the city of Chicago ever.
AMY GOODMAN: Congresswoman Delia Ramirez joins us now to talk about the immigration crackdown in Chicago, the government shutdown and more.
Why don’t we begin with the crackdown and the court hearing yesterday, the judge saying that the immigration officials were breaking rules when it came to shooting protesters and journalists with pepper balls, tear-gassing them? Talk about what’s happening in your city, Congressmember Ramirez.
REP. DELIA RAMIREZ: Amy, we are under attack by our own federal government. In many cases, I have constituents who tell me that they feel like our city is under siege. And it’s not just the city; it’s the surrounding suburbs, in some cases, two hours from the city of Chicago, where they’re targeting communities, communities that have been safe, communities that have been thriving. And in some cases, as you’re walking through some of these neighborhoods, they look like ghost neighborhoods, because people are just not coming out. People are living in daily fear.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Congresswoman, I wanted to ask you about this hearing, in which Judge Ellis questioned ICE officials about the use of body cameras. And they say — they claim that they don’t have money for body cameras in Chicago. And she ordered that the Border Patrol chief, Gregory Bovino, be deposed about this.
REP. DELIA RAMIREZ: How could she — how could ICE and Homeland Security say they have no money for body cameras? They have $200 million for Kristi Noem to get new jets. It just doesn’t make sense.
What we’re seeing is an agency that has gone rogue, that has been emboldened and that thinks that they’re above the law. In the same vein, they said that they didn’t have to follow the judge’s order. The director, Director Haugh, who was supposed to come before the judge yesterday, all of a sudden, on Friday, immediately returned back to D.C., because they know that what they’re doing is illegal.
And we have to make sure that we continue to organize in the streets. And that’s why you keep hearing us say, if you see ICE activity, report it and record it, because what ICE is stating and what we’re seeing in the community in the streets is inconsistent.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And what do you say about the enormous mobilization at the community level in neighborhood after neighborhood in Chicago? Have you been surprised by that?
REP. DELIA RAMIREZ: No, I know Chicago. I am part of the city, this beautiful city of community, of 77 neighborhoods. You know, I said to you, people are living in fear. And at the same time, our neighbors, our community organizations, our leaders, our organizers are in the streets organizing. They’re recording. They have rapid response teams. We’re creating human buses to take kids to and from school so that parents don’t have to be afraid, as what you’ve seen already happen when an ICE agent stops and drags a mother out of the car while the child is in the back. So, we’re doing a lot of organizing. We’re winning in the courts, because that footage is actually being used during litigation.
And we’re changing minds in Congress. I have colleagues of mine who would never have talked about defunding ICE, would never have talked about questioning ICE’s leadership or the day-to-day activity, began to talk about perhaps we need to consider defunding, perhaps we need to consider putting some strong legislation of accountability under an agency that now has gone rogue.
AMY GOODMAN: I want to talk about the government shutdown in its 21st day. As Trump breaks ground on this, what’s expected to be well more than $250 million gold-gilded ballroom, maybe the symbol of the demolished walls of the White House is particularly significant at this time, and furloughed workers and those that are required to work, essential workers, are not being paid. You have constituents — I want to ask about yours — who could lose their Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, SNAP, benefits. If you can talk about what’s the central debate in the midst of this shutdown, the Democrats demanding that the assistance, the continued assistance around ACA, the Affordable Care Act, and SNAP continue, and the Republicans saying no? What is going to come of this? And explain, in your case, who’s affected in Chicago.
REP. DELIA RAMIREZ: Yeah, I mean, Amy, Donald Trump and his puppets, my colleagues, the Republicans in Congress, they’ve made it very clear. They want my constituents uninsured, they want them unhoused, and they want them unemployed, all while he is creating a $200 million gold project for the White House, all while Kristi Noem continues to spend our taxpayer dollars to build and to be able to purchase $200 million worth of jets.
My constituents right now are asking themselves, “How could our president hate us so much? How could he be so removed from the reality of the American people that while he brags about his golden rooms, I may not be able to feed my children tomorrow?” Because it’s the cut in benefits, in SNAP benefits. It’s people who are not getting paid, our staff, essential workers, who have to pay a mortgage on November 1st. And they have to wonder, “How do we keep taking in the calls from our constituents, while also figuring out how do we pay our own mortgages?” This is the reality and the world that we’re currently living in, and it’s despicable.
And, Amy, here’s the worst part of all that: It can change overnight. Mike Johnson can call us into session today. He can introduce a resolution that restores healthcare, that protects SNAP benefits, that protects the American people. But he’s unwilling to do that. And half of his colleagues are not even in their districts; they’re out on vacation all over the world. This shutdown is the clear embodiment of Donald Trump’s leadership: starve and let people die while the billionaires and his cronies enrich themselves.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Congresswoman, Johnson and other Republicans keep claiming that the Democratic lawmakers have caused the federal government shutdown because they want to extend healthcare benefits to undocumented immigrants. What’s your response?
REP. DELIA RAMIREZ: Juan, it’s a vicious lie. And they think that the American people are uninformed, that if they keep saying it, that people will believe that. The federal government prohibits us from using federal funds to provide healthcare for undocumented people. It is a vicious lie. What they should say is, “I don’t care if Americans get healthcare or not. I don’t care if you have to triple your insurance premium and choose between going to the doctor or paying your bills.” This is a vicious lie. They know it. And when he’s questioned enough, he’ll walk it away. But this is a danger that we’re living in. You have the people in the highest office of our country spewing vicious lies with no responsibility or accountability.
AMY GOODMAN: You know, the Republican Senator Tuberville was just interviewed and said, you know, the way they’re going to pay, they’ve made a carveout to pay military members during this shutdown. And he was asked: Should they pay furloughed workers? And he said, “Then, we wouldn’t have any leverage,” right? That puts pressure to end this shutdown, if the workers aren’t being paid. But I was wondering: With Speaker Johnson not allowing you to come back to reconvene the House of Representatives, should congressmembers, should the House of Representative members, be paid?
REP. DELIA RAMIREZ: Yeah, I think that’s a really good question, right? And look, some of us would tell you that we are working every single day. Some of us are working 70, 80 hours a week, demanding to reopen the government. We came in as working-class, a few of us, unlike the majority of members of Congress. And we demand that we reopen the government and that we pay our employees, that we protect SNAP benefits.
This idea that, you know, go ahead and cut — yes, I understand how people feel about members of Congress. No one should feel bad for us as your members of Congress. But it is a responsibility of Johnson, one of the wealthiest members of Congress, to do his job, bring us back and protect benefits, protect healthcare and make sure that, whether it’s a Republican or a Democrat, that we’re doing everything we can to protect the American people.
AMY GOODMAN: And I was wondering about — well, you can’t say yet “Congressmember Grijalva,” because the House speaker has refused to seat her, in an unprecedented move, by keeping the House from convening. The Arizona congresswoman-elect, who represents Tucson, represents 700,000 people, do not have representation right now. What kind of internal discussion is going on? So many saying it’s because she would become the final vote needed to demand the release of the Epstein files. This devastating book coming out today by the late Virginia Giuffre called Nobody’s Girl, talking about Epstein. It seems like Trump is ramping everything up to deflect attention from this.
REP. DELIA RAMIREZ: Yeah, I mean, it’s true. Johnson prefers that people go homeless and are starved to death in this country than bringing us back, reopening the government, but even more so, allowing Adelita to represent her people, her community, her constituents, and become that 218th signature. Just think about that: The protection of pedophiles is above the protection of the children of this country. That is who Speaker Johnson is protecting: pedophiles. He’s denying Arizona 7 from having representation, so he can continue to cover up what we all know is in those files. It’s despicable, Amy.
And it is why you saw people in Chicago come out. People said, “No one’s going to want to come out in Chicago. They’re living in fear. ICE is all over the city. They’re not going to come out.” Two hundred and fifty thousand people came to Grant Park, but thousands came out throughout the surrounding suburbs, saying, “Enough is enough. We will not allow a wannabe king, but a pedophile, in many cases, to continue to dismantle our democracy and to continue to be covered up by a speaker and a Senate leader who care more about a pedophile than the American people.”
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Congresswoman, we only have a few seconds, but I wanted to ask you about another topic: the continued Israeli attack on Gaza. We finally have a ceasefire now. But what is your sense of what the days ahead hold in terms of reaching some more lasting peace in the Middle East?
REP. DELIA RAMIREZ: We know who Donald Trump is. He’s a wannabe king. And we know who Bibi Netanyahu is: a war criminal. I don’t trust them to actually, in fact, implement and protect a ceasefire. I mean, you are already seeing the impact right now.
This is why Block the Bombs, my bill, is so important. Some people have said that we don’t need that bill anymore. We need congressional oversight more than ever, because we can’t — we can’t trust Donald Trump to actually ensure a ceasefire to continue to be in effect. We’ve already seen in the last week what has happened. We have to make sure that we are blocking these bombs from being authorized and released to Bibi Netanyahu. And we have to continue to assert our congressional oversight, if in fact we are truly committed to a ceasefire.
AMY GOODMAN: Congressmember Delia Ramirez, we want to thank you for joining us, Democrat representing Chicago, from Illinois, the first Latina congresswoman to represent Chicago.
Next up, the government shutdown enters its 21st day. Who is the shadow president, Russ Vought, the man who once vowed to traumatize federal workers? Back in 20 seconds.
[break]
AMY GOODMAN: “Hog of the Forsaken” by the late folk legend Michael Hurley, performing in our Democracy Now! studio.
