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AMY GOODMAN: I want to ask you about another issue. We’re going to talk about ICE in a moment and what should happen in Congress. But there are new revelations about an Abu Dhabi royal purchasing a stake in the Trump family cryptocurrency company World Liberty Financial just days before President Trump took office this time around, The Wall Street Journal reporting that Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, known as the “Spy Sheikh,” purchased 49% stake in World Liberty Financial for a half a billion dollars; months later, the UAE winning access to tightly guarded artificial intelligence chips; and the whole story of Steve Witkoff, the Trump envoy, part of the deal, $31 million funneled into entities affiliated with his family, who is also co-founder of World Liberty Financial, and his son, Zach Witkoff. What’s going on here? You’ve called for an investigation.
REP. RO KHANNA: This is why we have an Emoluments Clause. You cannot, as the president of the United States, accept money from foreign governments while making foreign policy. And while this seems complicated, the story is actually pretty simple. You have senior people at UAE buy a huge stake, 49% stake, in Trump’s kids’ family business in cryptocurrency, and at the same time, you have these people from UAE lobbying Trump and Trump’s administration to lessen the export controls and allow America to sell the most sensitive technology and chips to UAE. So they’re buying into Trump’s family business, and then they’re asking Trump to sell them America’s most sensitive secrets when it comes to chips. That’s why the China Committee is investigating this. You ask: Why the China Committee? Because our biggest concern is that these chips don’t get into the hands of China through UAE or other intermediaries. And here you have a situation that our founders intended to stop with the Emoluments Clause. I hope that this will not be seen as partisan, but really seen for fundamental transparency. But we really need a new moral vision in this country. I mean, the decline in ethics and transparency has eroded public trust.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Well, Congressman Khanna, on another issue, let’s talk about the fight in Congress over funding for ICE and the Department of Homeland Security following the fatal shooting in Minneapolis of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal agents. On Tuesday, the House narrowly passed a funding bill that ended the partial government shutdown, but the bill only funds the Department of Homeland Security for two more weeks, time for lawmakers to negotiate new restrictions on immigration enforcement. Tell us, Congressman Khanna: What are you calling for?
REP. RO KHANNA: The Democratic Party cannot cave and fund a new agency. The Democratic Party cannot cave and provide new funding to an agency that is killing American citizens. This is why I’ve called for a 10-point plan. That should be our firm ground. We need to tear down ICE and have a new agency that has oversight with human rights to enforce immigration law. We need to make sure that we get rid of qualified immunity. We need to have a new standard of force. We need to make sure that Noem is impeached. And I have a set of 10 points, and I believe that needs to be the firm ground that the Democrats hold. Not an additional dime until they cede to our demands. We’re in the right. We can’t just fold this time.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: And, Congressman Khanna, your response to what Trump has said? He was asked in a recent interview on NBC about ICE operations in Minnesota. He said, “Maybe we can use a little bit of a softer touch, but you still have to be tough.” Your response?
REP. RO KHANNA: I was in Minneapolis. I mean, you have ICE agents patrolling the streets and following people to church. You have them going into the bookstores. You have them going into grocery stores and restaurants, not just to immigrants or children of immigrants, but to third- and fourth-generation Minnesotan families. So, I don’t understand what a softer touch looks like. Are they going to follow people to less churches? The reality is they’re violating people’s constitutional rights. And until we tear down the ICE agency, until we replace the ICE agency with an agency that is under the Justice Department that follows human rights and constitutional rights, we’re not going to solve this. That was how we enforced immigration law from the New Deal on to George W. Bush. There is no reason that we need an agency that has no accountability to human rights and constitutional law.
AMY GOODMAN: So, you join your fellow congressmember, Ilhan Omar, in calling for the abolition of ICE?
REP. RO KHANNA: I believe it needs to be replaced. I’ve said — I’ve said, let’s tear down the agency. It’s not working. It’s violating human rights. And let’s have an immigration enforcement agency — everyone believes that we need to enforce immigration laws — but let’s have that agency be a new agency that has clear safeguards, that has clear laws about the human rights of detention, where people are being detained, and that is under the Justice Department with oversight from Congress.
AMY GOODMAN: Congressmember Ro Khanna, Democratic congressmember from California, joining us from the Rotunda, from Capitol Hill.
Coming up, we hear the testimony of victims of Trump’s militarized immigration crackdown, including Marimar Martinez, shot five times by a federal immigration agent in Chicago. Back in 20 seconds.
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AMY GOODMAN: “Rapture” by Kassi Valazza, performing at the Brooklyn Folk Festival.
