Rep. Jayapal: ‘Stop Trump wars at home and overseas’

WASHINGTON—When Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., escapes from MAGA-dominated Washington, she heads home to the other Washington to join fellow lawmakers and thousands of protesters at the Tacoma ICE Detention Center owned by the private GEO Group.

The prison on the tideflats of this port city has a capacity of 1,600 women, children, and men and is packed far above that capacity with people awaiting forced deportation.

Jayapal has blasted ICE for blocking inspection of the prisons, which are notorious for overcrowding and their lack of health care and medications. She accuses ICE of flagrant abuses of the basic right of the detainees to legal counsel and the right to appeal deportation orders.

Last month, a federal judge ruled in favor of a lawsuit joined by Jayapal against the Department of Homeland Security that these private, for-profit prisons must be open for inspection by elected officials.

Jayapal, who emigrated alone to Seattle from India when she was 16 years old, blasted the Trump administration plan to spend $38 billion of taxpayer funds on the construction of new, privately-owned ICE prisons, each large enough to hold 8,000 to 10,000 detainees.

In a YouTube, Jayapal said:

“ICE just announced they are spending something like $38 billion on new incarceration facilities to detain thousands and thousands more people. $38 billion dollars would allow us to end homelessness…. It would allow us to extend the Affordable Care Act subsidies so 20 million people across the country would not be cut off health care….

“It would provide three times—actually nearly four times—the funds needed to provide universal school lunches for every kid across the country. Instead, they are spending $38 billion—your taxpayer dollars—on new detention facilities to lock up more people in these for-profit facilities. That is unacceptable.”

Her stand against ICE and Border Patrol fascism has stirred widespread protests. A “Focus Group” of the Clallam Democratic Party has drafted and is circulating in Port Angeles, Sequim, Tacoma, and other towns and cities a leaflet urging people to call Gov. Bob Ferguson (phone number 360-902-4111) and the State Legislature hotline (800-562-6000) urging them to announced publicly: “I care about protecting human rights. I urge you to issue an emergency order blocking any new ice facility in our state.”

The leaflet points out that ICE’s aim is to build a network of private detention centers as part of Trump’s drive to deport 11 million or more immigrants from Latin America, Africa, and Asia.

Then came Trump’s unilateral war on Iran. Peace activists gathered March 18 on Capitol Hill, placing on the lawn childrens shoes and backpacks like those carried by the 168 school girls killed in the U.S.’ Tomahawk bombing of an elementary school in Iran.

Rep. Jayapal spoke at the rally. “We just heard that the Pentagon is putting forward a request for $200 billion more for the war,” she said. “How on Earth are we going to pay for that? It is absolutely ridiculous!”

Just a few days earlier, Congress approved Trump’s request for $840 billion for the Pentagon. If the MAGA majority approves another $200 billion, it will put the War Department budget well over one trillion dollars in annual costs.

She pointed out that the first six days of the war cost $11 billion, with estimates that it is costing between $1 billion and $2 billion each day it continues. And the Pentagon now warns that bombing, missiles, and drones are not enough. A ground invasion by U.S. troops, some in the administration are saying, may be necessary.

Jayapal pointed out that 13 U.S. service members have already died, while three million Iranians and one million Lebanese civilians have been displaced by this “illegal, un-Constitutional war.”

The congresswoman emphasized, “There was no imminent threat, no plan for the war, and most importantly, no authorization from Congress for this war of choice.”

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