[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 76 (Wednesday, May 7, 2025)]
[House]
[Pages H1885-H1886]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      OPPOSING ILLEGAL POWER GRABS

  (Mr. Espaillat of New York was recognized to address the House for 5 
minutes.)
  Mr. ESPAILLAT. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in opposition to the Trump 
administration's illegal power grabs.
  Through executive orders, the Trump administration continues to 
circumvent Congress and violate the checks and balances of our three 
branches of government. He also continues to ignore court orders, 
including from the highest Court in the land, the U.S. Supreme Court, 
inching every day closer and closer to a constitutional crisis.

                              {time}  1030

  Mr. Speaker, in addition, Senate and House Republicans have made it 
clear time and time again that they have no interest in holding the 
President accountable to the American people and the Constitution of 
the United States of America, leaving the judicial branches of 
government as our strongest tool, leaving the courts as our only hope.
  Within hours of taking office, President Trump issued an executive 
order that would have unlawfully denied birthright citizenship, which 
is guaranteed to everyone born in America by the 14th Amendment. He did 
this although this principle has been affirmed

[[Page H1886]]

by the courts on numerous occasions. Currently, the courts have halted 
this executive order, citing how unconstitutional it is. More than 200 
Democrats filed an amicus brief against this executive order when it 
was challenged in court. This attempt has been successfully halted.
  In February, over a dozen religious organizations filed a lawsuit. 
These organizations sued the Department of Homeland Security after the 
administration rescinded guidance that would prevent immigration 
enforcement in sensitive locations, like schools, hospitals, and houses 
of worship.
  Mr. Speaker, you could be praying at a church or in a synagogue or 
temple, and immigration enforcement could bust in to arrest somebody as 
they pray to their God. They tried to implement this aggressive 
practice, and yet people have gone to the courts for relief.
  This echoes my own bill, H.R. 1061, Protecting Sensitive Locations 
Act, which would codify the Biden-era guidance. More than 70 of my 
Democratic colleagues have joined to support this legislation. 
Democrats have been hard at work to support ongoing legal cases by 
joining our amicus briefs.
  When the Trump administration tried to dismantle the Consumer 
Financial Protection Bureau, the agency that provides relief to 
consumers, 200 Democrats filed an amicus brief when it went to court. 
The amicus brief was cited by the judge in the decision, pausing the 
dismantling of this important bureau.
  Mr. Speaker, after one of Trump's latest crackdowns on scientific 
research at universities, Harvard filed a lawsuit against the 
administration, arguing that its freezing of research funding is 
unconstitutional and flatly unlawful.
  Though undocumented families and small businesses were explicitly 
encouraged for decades by government and legal counsel to come forward 
out of the darkness and pay their taxes through their ITIN number, the 
Trump administration is now trying to target this data to carry out his 
mass deportation plan.
  This is not just an immigration issue; this is a privacy issue. 
Taxpayer privacy is key to our democracy. That is why, as chair of the 
Congressional Hispanic Caucus, I led the CHC in an amicus brief on this 
legislation. More than 100 Democrats have signed on.
  It is clear through his actions and his words that President Trump 
has no interest in upholding the Constitution and granting every 
American the due process that they are owed. There has been a 
longstanding tradition of underrepresented communities resorting to the 
judicial system when all else has failed to hold larger, richer, and 
more powerful entities accountable.
  We must continue the fight to uphold the right to due process. We 
must fight to continue to hold the Trump administration accountable. We 
must preserve our system of checks and balances. Not to do so would 
damage the balance of power and permanently fracture our democracy.

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