Speech #CREC-2017-02-16-pt1-PgS1257_t1

But when she met my father Donald Harris, she made a different plan. She went against a practice reaching back thousands of years, and instead of an arranged marriage, she chose a love marriage. This act of self-determination made my sister Maya and me, and it made us Americans, like millions of children of immigrants before and since. I know she is looking down on us today, and knowing my mother, she is probably saying: Kamala, what on Earth is going on down there? We have to stand up for our values. So in the spirit of my mother, who was always direct, I cannot mince words. In the early weeks of this administration, we have seen an unprecedented series of Executive actions that have hit our immigrant and religious communities like a cold front, striking a chilling fear in the hearts of millions of good, hard-working people, all by Executive fiat. By fiat, we have seen the President stick taxpayers with a bill for a multibillion-dollar border wall, without regard to the role of the U.S. Congress under article 1 of the Constitution. By fiat, we have seen a President mandate the detention of immigrants, both documented and undocumented, creating a dragnet that could ensnare 8 million people. By fiat, the President has ordered the creation of what essentially will be a 15,000-member deportation force. By fiat, he wants to take away State and local authority by making local police officers act as Federal immigration officials. By fiat, the President wants to slam the gates of freedom by instituting a Muslim ban--a ban which was as carelessly written as it has been incompetently enforced. In recent days, we have seen an increased severity in immigration raids sweeping across this country, including the arrest of a DREAMer in Seattle and a domestic violence victim in Texas. And we have seen an administration violate court orders, attack the First Amendment, bully Federal judges, and mock Americans exercising their right to freely assemble. I rise today to discuss how these actions impact my State of California and our country. In particular, the State of California, I believe, is a microcosm of who we are as America. In California, we have farmers and environmentalists, welders and technologists, Republicans, Democrats, Independents, and the largest number of immigrants, documented and undocumented, of any State in the Nation. I rise because the President's actions have created deep uncertainty and pain for our refugee and immigrant communities. I rise on behalf of California's more than 250,000 DREAMers, who were told by the Federal Government: If you sign up, we will not use your personal information against you. I rise to say the United States of America cannot go back on our promise to these kids and their families. I rise today as a lifelong prosecutor and as the former top cop of the biggest State in this country to say that these Executive actions present a real threat to our public safety. Let me repeat that: The President's immigration actions and Muslim ban will make America less safe. As a prosecutor, I can tell you it is a serious mistake to conflate criminal justice policy with immigration policy, as if they are the same thing. They are not. I have personally prosecuted everything from low-level offenses to homicides. I know what a crime looks like, and I will tell you, an undocumented immigrant is not a criminal. But that is what these actions do; they suggest all immigrants are criminals and treat immigrants like criminals. There is no question, those who commit crimes must face severe and serious and swift consequence and accountability. But the truth is, the vast majority of the immigrants in this country are hard-working people who deserve a pathway to citizenship. Instead of making us safer, these increased raids and Executive orders instill fear in immigrants who are terrified they will be deported or have to give up information resulting in the deportation of their family members. For this reason, studies have shown Latinos are more than 40 percent less likely to call 9-1-1 when they have been a victim of crime. This climate of fear drives people underground and into the shadows, making them less likely to report crimes against themselves or others--fewer victims reporting crime and fewer witnesses coming forward.