Abdul El-Sayed delivers a fiery attack on Donald Trump’s ICE policy, declaring that the agency has no place in America and demanding its abolition. In a forceful speech, El-Sayed accuses Trump’s immigration enforcement apparatus of overreach and challenges the administration’s approach to immigration, deportations and federal law enforcement.
Watch the full remarks as Abdul El-Sayed takes aim at Trump and ICE, arguing for major changes to U.S. immigration policy and accountability.
#AbdulElSayed #DonaldTrump #Trump #ICE #Immigration #ICEAbolishICE #USPolitics #AmericanPolitics #TrumpNews #ImmigrationPolicy #BreakingNews #PoliticalNews #Democrats #News
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Watch the full remarks as Abdul El-Sayed takes aim at Trump and ICE, arguing for major changes to U.S. immigration policy and accountability.
#AbdulElSayed #DonaldTrump #Trump #ICE #Immigration #ICEAbolishICE #USPolitics #AmericanPolitics #TrumpNews #ImmigrationPolicy #BreakingNews #PoliticalNews #Democrats #News
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NewsTranscript
00:00If you think you can use a kid as bait, you do not deserve a job in the federal government.
00:08So ICE can't be reformed. ICE can't be retrained. ICE has to be abolished.
00:12Money out of? Money in your? Medicare for? There it is. Southwest Detroit. It is an honor and a
00:19privilege to be with you. My name is Abdul El-Sayed. I'm clearly running for U.S. Senate
00:23because I got a name that is tailor-made for U.S. politics. But y'all just shouldn't be this
00:30hard.
00:31Shouldn't be this hard to afford a second bag of groceries. Should not be this hard to send your
00:36kid to a dentist or to see a doctor. Should not be this hard to know that the job you've
00:41worked
00:43yesterday and yesterday before is going to be there for you tomorrow. Shouldn't be this hard.
00:48Now I was never supposed to run for public office. That is not part of my life's plan.
00:51My parents virtually guaranteed as much when they gave me an 11-letter first name
00:55that's got sounds that come out of parts of people's throats most people don't know they have.
01:00I wanted to be a doctor. And I wanted to be a doctor because I was raised by my father,
01:05who's an Egyptian immigrant, and my stepmom, Jackie, who's a daughter of the American Revolution.
01:09And the place they'd send me every summer was Alexandria, Egypt. As soon as I was old enough,
01:14they would ship me abroad to spend time with the wisest, most intelligent person I've ever met
01:19in my life. And that was my grandmother, my titha su'ad. Never got to go to school. She was
01:24the ninth of 14, raised six of the eight kids to whom she gave birth. Two of them died before
01:30their
01:30first birthday. Now when I would go to Egypt, I'd go 15 hours from where I grew up. I would
01:36cross a
01:36life expectancy difference of 10 years. I didn't have to go 15 hours. I could go 15 minutes from where
01:44I
01:44grew up. South into the city or north to Pontiac. And either way, I'd cross the same 10 year life
01:53expectancy gap. I became a doctor because I wanted to do something about that. It shouldn't matter the
01:57color of your skin. It shouldn't matter what you do for work or what your parents did for work.
02:01You deserve access to a long, healthy life in the richest, most powerful country in the world.
02:08So I went off with that goal, got to go to the University of Michigan. It was the first time
02:13anybody told me I should think about running for office. And the guy kind of knew something
02:16about it. He'd been a former president. His name was Bill Clinton. I was the valedictorian
02:20in my class. And I got to give the student commencement speech. And it was a great honor.
02:25Except for nobody actually came to listen to me. They went to go listen to the main speaker
02:28who was President Clinton. I give my speech. President gives his speech, calls me out in
02:35his speech. My dad, an immigrant, claps for me for the first time in my whole life. And
02:40then after the speech comes up to me, he's like, son, why are you going to medical school?
02:44First thing that came to my mind was I'm brown and Muslim is what we do. But also I love
02:49people and I love science and this is how I want to serve. And he looks at me for a
02:53minute
02:53and he says, you know, you got a gift for communicating. Maybe someday you'll run for office. And I literally
02:56laughed in his face. I was like, Mr. President, did you see my name? People like me don't get
03:00to run for office. And he kind of chuckled and walked away. That was 2007. 2008, I watched
03:07a guy named Barack Hussein Obama run for and win the presidency. It was the first time I
03:14ever saw myself at all reflected in politics. His dad immigrated from Africa. My dad immigrated
03:19from a different part of Africa. He had mixed parents. I was raised by mixed parents. He
03:24had a funny name. I got a funny name. He's tall and skinny. I'm short and thick. But I put
03:30that away. I went off to medical school, did a PhD in public health on the way. And I'm
03:35finally doing the work that doctors do, which is about asking and answering two questions.
03:39What's wrong and how can I help? And I kept realizing that the answer to what was wrong
03:44usually had a lot less to do with all the physiology. I spent all this time studying a lot more
03:49to do
03:49with pathologies in our politics. The air we breathe, the water we drink, whether or not we get to walk
03:56in our own communities without being the victim of somebody's violence, whether it's a neighbor or
04:01the state itself, whether or not we can even see a doctor when we get sick. And I realized I
04:07wanted
04:07to do something about that. And so when all of us graduated medical school and my classmates did the
04:13normal thing and went off to residency, I decided to go a very different direction. I went into public
04:17health. I got the opportunity to come back home to Michigan to work alongside Detroiters to
04:25rebuild the health department in the state after it had been shut down when the city was going
04:30through bankruptcy and state takeover back in the emergency management years. Y'all remember those
04:34doldrums? Yes, boo. They made the decision to shut down a 185 year old health department in a city
04:42with a higher infant mortality rate than my father's native Egypt. And I was hired to rebuild it
04:48across my work in public health, leading Detroit's health department, and then Wayne County's
04:53Department of Health, Human and Veteran Services. We thought outside the box. We wanted to intervene
04:58in those places where health was a means for transmitting intergenerational poverty. We did things
05:05like guarantee every child a free pair of glasses delivered at school within two weeks of a vision
05:09test. That program, since we brought it to the state of Michigan for the first time in Detroit, has
05:14delivered 50,000 pairs of glasses statewide. We took on some of the biggest polluters in our state. I
05:24know we're in southwest Detroit. I don't have to tell you about Marathon Petroleum. They wanted to
05:29raise their emissions of sulfur dioxide, despite the fact that the EPA had said that they were already
05:34in what's called non-attainment, meaning too much sulfur dioxide in the air. We kept hearing from local
05:39community members and we said, you know, we could do something about this. So we stepped in. We
05:43organized collectively together. And for the first time, we stood up to them, forced them to invest
05:4810 million dollars of their own money to reduce their emissions when they had wanted initially to
05:53increase them. We put air quality monitors in Wayne County all over the county so you could get real
05:58time information about the air you were breathing. After the Flint water crisis, we had every school,
06:04daycare and head start in the whole city tested for lead in the water. In the first 68
06:09schools, we tested 19 of them tested positive for lead. Got to help rewrite the state's lead policy
06:16after the Flint water crisis. In Wayne County, we put Narcan, life-saving anti-overdose medication,
06:23in a hundred locations in vending machines for free. We built a program to provide health insurance for
06:29free for new small businesses. And when we found out that our county ranked number eight for medical debt
06:34nationwide, we realized that we could do something about it. We set aside seven million dollars to
06:39eliminate upwards of 700 million dollars of medical debt for 300,000 people. It is the biggest medical
06:44debt erasure in Michigan state history. Now, I'm never going to forget that day, sitting in my office
06:55at the Guardian when they froze federal funds. Y'all remember that? Early on in the administration,
07:00feels like 10 years ago, it was really about like a year ago. And I'm sitting in my office looking
07:05at all
07:05the line items in my budget, they just froze. WIC, food on the table for moms and babies, frozen.
07:10Federally qualified health centers, the last line of health care for people who can't get it, frozen.
07:15Vaccines, frozen. And I get a notification on my phone that after his long career, our current U.S.
07:22Senator Gary Peters is not seeking re-election. Now, I got, just then, I get a text message on my
07:33phone
07:34from your representative, our sister Rashida Thalib. And she looks at me, she writes me a text,
07:41Habibi, this one looks like yours. And the reason she said that is because I ran for governor back in
07:462018. Now, I was 32 years old. I'd never run for office in my life. I had a bad advice
07:54from a former
07:55president in my head. Donald Trump had just been elected president. I said, you know what, I'll go big
07:58or go home. I went big. Then I went home. But in the process, I earned 340,000 votes. We
08:06got outspent
08:07seven to one, but we were two to one more efficient than the current governor, three to one more
08:12efficient in dollars per vote than the congressman in the place next door. God knows how he became a
08:17congressman. But more importantly, I said something at the time that I think folks weren't quite ready
08:23for that has never proven more true than it does today. Donald Trump is not himself the disease of
08:29our politics. Donald Trump is just the worst symptom of the disease of our politics.
08:34The disease is the system that allows big corporations, billionaires, special interests
08:41like AIPAC to buy and sell politicians to do their bidding instead of ours. We pay more for the stuff
08:49we got to buy, get paid less for the work that we do and watch as our tax dollars get
08:53misappropriated
08:54abroad to drop bombs on other people's kids instead of to invest in our own kids and their schools and
08:58their healthcare. So if we're serious about defeating Trump, it's not just about beating Trump. It's about
09:08beating the system that created Donald Trump in the first place. And that's why we're running a campaign
09:13to do three simple things. Number one, we want to get money out of? Put money in your? Pass Medicare
09:20for?
09:21And look, here's the thing about it. I want to talk a little bit about what this means.
09:27Just today, we got a notification that AIPAC just put in a $3.8 million ad buy for the next
09:37two weeks
09:37alone. $3.8 million of the estimated $30 million that they are going to spend specifically to beat
09:47me. I happen to believe that that kind of electioneering is anti-democratic and should be
09:54illegal. I'm the only candidate in my race who's never taken a dime from a corporation to run a
09:59campaign and never will. And so believe you me when I tell you that we are going to make corporate
10:07contributions to campaigns illegal and we're going to end the whole system of dark money. The super
10:13PACs, the 501c4s, the 527s that corrupt our politics in the first place. That's what it means to get money
10:20out of politics. I got to talk about putting money in your pocket. We've watched as big corporations buy
10:27each other up, squeeze other ones out. They tell us that we live in capitalism. I happen to study
10:32capitalism. And let me tell you what the biggest danger to capitalism has always been. It's not
10:37government regulation. The biggest danger to capitalism is monopoly. And we are living functionally
10:42under monopolies of all sorts. It's the reason they can just raise our prices. But we have policy
10:48on the books. We have a whole agency in the Federal Trade Commission that used to be led by the
10:53most
10:53effective FTC chair in a century, Lena Kahn, where we need to stand up and enforce antitrust
11:01regulation. That is one of the most important things we can do. I just heard over the last
11:07two months since we've been fighting this illegal, unjustifiable, immoral war, Shell Corporation
11:15has made record profits because they operate in what is an oligopoly and together they can collude
11:23to raise our prices. We pay what? Five bucks a gallon now with the tank? Five bucks? Part of that
11:29is
11:29the dumbass war we're fighting, but part of that is the way corporations are profiteering off of that
11:33exact same war. That ought to be illegal. The FTC can do something about it. And we're going to stand
11:37up
11:38to enforce antitrust policy in this country again. I also know that we live in the heart of union
11:47country. Unions built the middle class. They built the 40-hour work week. They built the fact that our
11:53kids go to schools instead of going to work. And it's no coincidence that we live in an era of
12:00near
12:00all-time low union membership and near all-time high billionaire wealth. We've got to stand up for
12:07corporations. That means passing the PRO Act and that means normalizing unions to form and build in
12:13sectors across American life. Guys, you got to clap for unions. I'm so sorry, but hey, most important
12:19means to affordable life that we have in front of us. And on the topic of billionaires, I happen to
12:26believe that we ought to be charging billionaires and taxing their wealth. Because here's the thing
12:33about it. If you're a billionaire and I tax you at 8%, you know what you still are? Still a
12:39billionaire.
12:40You're kids, kids, kids, kids, kids. Going to be rich. If you take a billion dollars, you know how much
12:45a billion dollars makes in the market? 10%. So if you tax somebody at 8%, guess what? They're still making
12:502%. You know what 2% of a billion is? 20 million dollars for doing jack shit. So I think
12:57you're going to be
12:57okay. All these billionaires getting so, so sad about us taxing wealth. I'm so sorry. You're doing
13:03just fine. You already won at capitalism. I think it is high past time for everybody else to be able
13:09to play too. And then there's the matter of where we spend our tax dollars.
13:23$3 billion every single year to subsidize the country, committing apartheid, at minimum genocide
13:31over the past two years and counting. Money that should have been spent on our kids and their schools
13:36and their health care being used to buy bombs and tanks for foreign countries. I think unconditional
13:41foreign military aid should be illegal. We need to stop doing it. And while we're at it,
13:45I do not believe we should be selling weapons to a country that is violating human rights law.
13:58And then you ask yourself, why are we at war? Well, who benefits from this war?
14:04Prime minister of a foreign government has been trying to get this war fought for 40 years. And
14:10he finally found a dumb ass willing to fight it for him. Who benefits? Why are we fighting this? Well,
14:17Raytheon benefits, Northrop Grumman benefits, General Dynamic Systems benefits, Palantir benefits,
14:24and the government of Israel benefits. And so it is high past time for us to recognize that morals
14:29ought to mean something. We should not be fighting illegal, unjustifiable wars. And that's not just
14:34because of procedural issues. It's not just because they didn't get war authorization from Congress
14:38because it's an illegal and unjustifiable war. It is because this is a wrong war we never should
14:43have fought. It is time for us to keep our money here rather than spending $25 billion there. We
14:49could spend $25 billion here and invest in our kids here and our health care here and our education
14:54system here and our infrastructure here. And while we're on the topic of where we spend our tax dollars,
15:03$185 billion for ICE. Now, maybe it's because I've actually run government agencies before.
15:12But have you ever thought through like, how would you reform or retrain an agency whose response to
15:19shooting somebody in the back of the head or the face is to say, one of ours, all of yours?
15:25They want to tell us that ICE is about immigration. They want to tell us that ICE is about the
15:31southern
15:31border. Now, I went to Minneapolis at the height of Project Metro Search. I wanted to see for myself
15:36what it looks like when our government lays a siege to a city in its own country. And what I
15:42saw was
15:43harrowing. But also notice something. So I went to public schools and I learned maps. And I thought to
15:47myself, man, it's negative two degrees outside. I must not be on the southern border. What the hell
15:51does Minneapolis have to do with the southern border? Absolutely nothing. ICE is not about
15:56immigration. ICE is not about the southern border. We can enforce immigration policies without
16:01shooting people in the back of the head or the face, without covering your face and using weapons
16:04of war to do it. So there is no, there is no reforming this agency. There is no retraining these
16:13workers. If you think you can use a kid as bait, you do not deserve a job in the federal
16:20government.
16:23So ICE can't be reformed. ICE can't be retrained. ICE has to be abolished.
16:30And then lastly, when we take our tax dollars back, we got an opportunity to think beyond
16:36the broke healthcare system they tell us is the best we can do. Because y'all, we don't have to
16:42go very
16:42far to a place where they spend half as much money and everybody gets healthcare. I went to Windsor
16:47to interview people about what they do with their medical debt. You should have seen the way they
16:50looked at me. They're like, what? I'm like, medical debt. They're like, what's that? I was like, you
16:54know, the debt you get because you got healthcare? They're like, I'm so sorry. Like, we don't have
16:59that here. I was like, wait, why? They're like, because we provide healthcare for every single
17:07person. I'm like, but what about your waiting lines? They're like, no, no, I'm good. I've never had the
17:11waiting line. I was like, really? You know what the average wait time for a cardiologist
17:16in America is? Two and a half months. Now, I'm a doctor. I can tell you this. Nobody tells
17:23you you need to see a cardiologist in two and a half months. When they tell you you need
17:27to see a cardiologist, there's like two and a half hours, at most two and a half days.
17:31Two and a half months in the richest, most powerful country in the world where we spend
17:3520% of our entire GDP on healthcare. So in the richest, most powerful country in the
17:41world, it is high past time for us to abolish medical debt and finally do the work of guaranteeing
17:46healthcare through Medicare for all. Now, I'm getting the hook.
17:56I know I'm not supposed to run for office. I get it. I'm the wrong color. I pray the wrong
18:01way.
18:02I got a foreign name. I literally told the president as much at my own college graduation.
18:08I understand. But you know what I'm not going to do? I'm not going to stand here and tell you
18:12what you cannot have and should not fight for. I'm not going to tell you that the best use of
18:17your U.S. Senate seat is to hold on to it to do exactly the same thing that the other
18:21guy would
18:21have done. I'm not going to tell you that we need to keep playing not to lose or that you
18:28got to wait
18:28two more years or four more years because guess what? Those two years and four years never come.
18:33The question for us is bigger than this seat. It is about what we want out of our democracy in
18:37the
18:37first place. So if everything is working just fine for you, I'm not your guy. Do not vote for me.
18:42But if you believe that you deserve healthcare, if you believe that your tax dollars ought to be
18:46spent on you, if you believe that corporations should not have a bigger say in our politics than
18:51you do, then maybe I am. I'm going to finish here. Honestly, it's personal, y'all. Like I had two
19:02little girls at home. They're eight and three. Ethnically half Egyptian like me, ethnically half
19:07Indian like their mom where they get their looks than God. A hundred percent American. And those little
19:13girls are growing up with fewer rights in the country of their birth than their grandparents
19:21had when they immigrated here 50 years ago. And those grandparents, they took a bet on a set of
19:28ideals. We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men should say people are created equal
19:33government of the people by the people and for the people. And I know those are lofty ideals and
19:38we've never quite gotten there. But I also know we have not moved backwards as fast. All
19:45of us have people to whom we will hand this place off. And we owe them to look them in
19:51the
19:51eye when we do and to tell them what we did when democracy itself was on the line. Who we
19:58were and what we fought for. And so as we work together moving forward, I want you to think
20:05about those people and what we owe them. It's not about how much time you have. It's about how
20:11much of yourself you put into your time. And we're building a movement that is about the ideals of
20:17this place. About honoring them. Not just for ourselves, but for the people we leave this place
20:22behind to. So I'm so deeply grateful to all of you for being here today. So deeply grateful for the
20:29work
20:29that you've already done. For the work that you will do. I'm asking you to put yourself into your time.
20:34We got three months left. On August 4th, we vote. On November 3rd, we vote again. And I'm hoping
20:41that leaving here today, that you will commit to putting yourself into our democracy. To having the
20:47conversations with folks about what we can yet fight for. About deciding to go out into your
20:53community and knock doors or make phone calls. Help us. Help us. Because all we love is on the line.
21:02Thank you so much.
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