Representative Yvette D. Clarke (NY-09) issued the following statement:
“Donald Trump’s deployment of United States Marines to the streets of Los Angeles is an authoritarian escalation unlike any before in American history. Let’s understand the facts. This all started with peaceful protests against the inhumane kidnapping of our immigrant neighbors. The LAPD had largely contained this situation before it was exacerbated by National Guardsmen whom the president illegally seized control over. And now, under the pretense of crushing the very chaos he created, the president has ordered 700 active-duty Marines to engage in so-called law enforcement, which they have no legal or ethical right to conduct.
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“We must recognize, and recognize quickly, that Los Angeles is only the beginning. In a matter of months, weeks, or even days, some contrived crisis may reach our cities. And then we’ll find the Armed Forces on our soil, with their guns trained on our people. That’s always been his goal – to ensure every American knows the fear our immigrant neighbors now feel. As he threatens to arrest a sitting governor and readies to brutalize protestors to feel like the strongman he never will be, we all must understand that Trump established a dangerous new precedent today. Time is running out to prepare for exactly what that means.
“Whatever lies ahead, Congressional Democrats will stand in solidarity with our California delegation, and we will support any efforts to oppose the president’s overreach. I urge all protestors to remain peaceful and to rise above Donald Trump’s desperation for chaos and confusion. He’s relying on the violence of protestors to justify his own. Do not give him what he wants.”
