Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) delivered a fiery critique of the House GOP on Wednesday, accusing Republicans of using immigration enforcement as a distraction from President Donald Trump’s controversial actions during his first days back in office.
Speaking during a hearing on immigration, Raskin denounced what he described as political theater and the GOP’s failure to address pressing issues facing Americans. “All these fine speeches and all these fancy parties with billionaires and congressmen in tuxedos.
All these executive orders for big oil and the tech ‘be oligarchs,’ and these pardons for Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, and violent extremists who chanted, ‘Hang Mike Pence!’ and smashed and wounded our police officers in this building with steel poles, baseball bats and Confederate flags,” Raskin began.
He continued, “All this sound and fury on day one and week one, but nothing to bring down grocery prices or nothing to bring down the cost of rent as they promised, nothing to improve our health care system or build on our success in the last Congress in reducing prescription drug prices.
Nothing to get health insurance coverage for millions of people who don’t have it, nothing to bring down the cost of housing or build new housing, nothing to combat the nightmare of climate change other than the full-scale retreat of withdrawing from the Paris Climate Accord, nothing to address the real problems faced by the American people.”
Turning to the GOP’s focus on immigration, Raskin accused Republicans of shifting attention away from Trump’s release of violent January 6 offenders. “Today they want to change the subject from the indelible and shocking public safety disaster of the president releasing hundreds of convicted felons, specifically violent cop-beating felons caught on tape in the act whom he incited January 6, 2021, back into the population with no plan for protecting the American people or the public safety,” Raskin charged. “So, what do they want to talk about today in their wisdom? Public safety and immigration!”
Raskin also dismissed Republican-backed immigration bills as hollow gestures. “Tiny little messaging bills that move a few words around but don’t fundamentally change anything,” he said.
Raskin’s speech highlighted his frustration with the GOP’s priorities, accusing them of focusing on partisan distractions rather than addressing economic and social challenges impacting Americans. His comments reflect broader tensions in Congress as both parties spar over the direction of immigration policy and public safety.