Progressive Politics

What have you made of the response to the video of you being thrown to the ground?

I mean, frankly, I’m shocked that people are shocked about this. They did similar [things] last week. This was the most aggressive action they’ve taken. But once last week, twice today, ICE has picked me up and thrown me on the ground.

Honestly, it doesn’t compare to what our neighbors who are trapped inside the Broadview processing facility are going through. They’re committing crimes against humanity there. This is a processing facility, so people are not supposed to be held for more than 12 hours at a time, but they are being held for days or even weeks. They are not given beds. They sleep on the concrete. They are not given hygienic products. They are not given hot meals. And these aren’t criminals. There are literally pregnant women and grandmothers in there. Last week when we saw them being loaded into a van, they were wearing the same clothes that they were detained in.

This is what ICE is. And we need to recognize that. It’s unfortunate that, just because I’m a congressional candidate, this is more newsworthy than if it would have happened to another protester. This shouldn’t be happening to anyone. And we don’t even know what is happening to the protesters who were kidnapped. We don’t know what is happening to our neighbors who were kidnapped and are being detained there. This is what Trump’s America looks like.

Archived at https://web.archive.org/web/20250924110136/https://newrepublic.com/article/200715/im-congressional-candidate-assaulted-ice