Alexandria, VA. - At the June 12 Alexandria City Council Town Hall, Councilman Canek Aguirre condemned the assault of U.S. Senator Alex Padilla at a Department of Homeland Security press briefing hours earlier and the Trump administration’s continued attack on the constitutional rights of Americans and the immigrant community.
Like Senator Padilla, Aguirre is a Los Angeles native and the son of Mexican immigrants.
Click here to watch video of Councilman Aguirre's remarks. A transcript is below.
Councilman Aguirre: A lot of people know I'm originally from Los Angeles, and you know they've already been deployed there to me unjustly and unlawfully, superseding both the mayor and the governor, mayor of Los Angeles, governor of California.
And if folks are not aware, the senior U.S. senator from California, Alex Padilla, was forcibly removed, then thrown to the floor, and handcuffed in a federal building just a couple hours ago.
You know, we try and keep things here locally, but there are things that are occurring across the river and across the country, that regardless of party affiliation, and if you are an apathetic voter and say, ‘it doesn't matter who's in there, everything's going to be the same,’ I want folks to know that that's not the case.
Our constitutional rights, our democratic rule of law, is currently under attack.
If they are going to not only handcuff a sitting U.S. Senator and then lie about his actions, which is documented in video.
An official statement from Homeland came out and said that the Senator burst into the room, started yelling, did not identify himself, and then lunged at the Secretary. That is completely false.
As the video shows very clearly, the Senator, who was in a federal building, and rightfully in that building for a meeting, was informed that the Secretary was having a presser a couple of doors down.
He went to the presser to ask a question. He was then attacked by officers. He identified himself. They dismissed it. The Secretary did not stop them, and then he was handcuffed on the floor.
If that is how they are going to treat a U.S. Senator, how are they going to treat the most vulnerable people within our communities?
Now in Alexandria, we are very fortunate to have a robust network of nonprofits. And while I will not go into the details of what the nonprofits are doing or what the city's efforts are, I can assure the public that the immigrant community is very aware of efforts that are underway to make sure that individuals are protected and that they are aware of their constitutional rights.
It is not illegal to tell anyone what their constitutional rights are, regardless of threats from this federal administration, even to myself and my colleagues to my left, saying that anyone...
My apologies, I'm a little bit emotional about this, I'm very angry.
To try and threaten elected officials to inform people of their constitutional rights and then say that it is impeding federal law, it is absolutely ridiculous and ludicrous.
This city values our diversity, values equity, values inclusion. We understand the benefits of the immigrant community, and we will make sure that we do everything within our power to protect our residents. Period.
###
