Rep. Rashida Tlaib Says Recent ICE Raids, Deportations “Racialized, Hate-Filled, Un-American”

Tlaib joins Detroit Today with Stephen Henderson to talk immigration, The Squad, and more.

Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) in 2019. Photo by Jake Neher, WDET.

She might be a first-term member of Congress, but no one in Michigan’s delegation is getting more attention than Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Detroit).

As a member of “The Squad” in the House, Tlaib has become one of the leading elected voices of resistance to President Trump.

But she says, although the members of that group embrace the Squad moniker, work closely together, and like and respect each other, she says lumping them together as if they’re all the same person is misguided and has racial undertones. 

“Like [Rep. Ayanna Pressley] says, we’re not some kind of insurgent. Most of us didn’t even know each other before we went to Congress,” she tells Stephen Henderson on Detroit Today.

Tlaib recently visited Calhoun County Jail in Michigan, where she says U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has an agreement to detain migrants. She says she was denied entry to see the conditions inside the facility.

She says recent ICE raids and deportations — one which resulted in the death of a Michigan man in Iraq — are “very racialized, it’s very hate-filled, and it’s very un-American.”

Click on the audio player above to hear Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib talk about immigration, environmental, and other issues.

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  • Detroit Today
    Dynamic and diverse voices. News, politics, community and the issues that define our region. Hosted by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Stephen Henderson, Detroit Today brings you fresh and perceptive views weekdays at 9 am and 7 pm.