Sen. McGuire Makes an Impassioned Plea for the No Kings Act

 Sen. McGuire Delivers Powerful Senate Floor Speech Calling Out ICE, Supporting “No Kings Act”

“You want to stand up here and defend that? Go ahead. That’s not who we are as Americans, or as a country.”

SACRAMENTO, CA – Today, State Senator Mike McGuire, candidate for U.S. Congress in CA-01, delivered a powerful speech on the floor of the California State Senate in support of the “No Kings Act,” a bill that would ensure federal agents – such as ICE and CBP – can be accountable for constitutional violations.

“[ICE agents] took a five year old, terrified and confused, knocking on his damn parents’ door, still wearing his Spider-Man backpack from school, and used him to lure out his dad and then arrested him.”  McGuire said, holding back tears, “You want to stand up here and defend that? Go right ahead. That's not who we are as Americans or as a country.

Watch & download Senator McGuire’s full remarks here.

“It's easy to be scared and angry right now, but we have to turn that anger into action, and that's how we stop this,” McGuire continued, “That's what we're doing today with Senate Bill 747, the No Kings Act. We're making clear that federal agents who violate constitutional rights will no longer be shielded from accountability in this state”

The goal of SB747 is to align existing state liability law and allow lawsuits against federal law enforcement agencies and agents when there are violations of an individual’s constitutional rights.

I rise today in support of Senate Bill 747, and thank the Senator from San Francisco for his work on this today.

Transcript below:

I rise today not just as a member of the Senate, but as a dad. 

Erika and my son, Connor, turns five years old next month. Five years old. And like so many parents across this country, I watched in disbelief last week as photographs emerged of ICE agents literally kidnapping a five year old in Minnesota. A child named Liam Conejo Ramos, he's nearly the same age as Connor.

They didn't kidnap him because the child had done anything wrong, because they wanted to use him as bait.

As bait.

They took a five year old, terrified and confused, knocking on his damn parents’ door, still wearing his Spider Man backpack from school, and used him to lure out his dad and then arrested him. You want to stand up here and defend that? Go right ahead. That's not who we are as Americans or as a country. 

But it doesn't start or end there, like millions of Americans we watched with horror this past weekend as ICE agents murdered Alex Pretti in Minneapolis. Let's call it what it is, state-sponsored violence. Just under three weeks ago, we watched as Renee Good was murdered by the secret police.

Right now, there are kids across America, right here in Sacramento and across the state, who are too afraid to go to school. Parents across this country who won't go to work because they don't want to be separated from their kids and deported. You talk to doctors and nurse practitioners, parents aren't sending their kids to the doctor anymore because they're afraid of being deported. 

Not because they are criminals, but because they are being targeted by the color of their skin. It's called racial profiling, and it's unconstitutional. 

This is not the America that we fight for every day. 

This is what we should be fighting against. It's called fascism. 

And look, I think it's easy to be scared and angry right now, but we have to turn that anger into action, and that's how we stop this. That's what we're doing today with Senate Bill 747, the No Kings Act. We're making clear that federal agents who violate constitutional rights will no longer be shielded from accountability in this state. No secret police.

And if you violate someone's constitutional rights, you can be held accountable in a court of law, just like all of us. Just like all of us in the California State Senate. 

So let's show the rest of America that California will not be silent. Being silent at this point in time in our nation's history would be immoral. We would be complicit. 

We will not be intimidated. We are better than this in this country. And together, we're going to prove it. 

Would recommend an aye vote on Senate Bill 747.