Durbin On “No Kings” Protest: Political Opposition & Peaceful Protests Are Not Rebellion, They Are The Bedrock Of Our Democracy
In his speech on the Senate floor, Durbin also spoke out against the Trump Administration asking the Supreme Court to greenlight the deployment of National Guard troops to Chicago
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, today delivered a speech on the Senate floor recounting the events of Chicago’s “No Kings” protest over the weekend. In his remarks, Durbin further spoke about the Trump Administration’s appeal to the Supreme Court to overturn lower-court rulings that have temporarily paused the deployment of National Guard troops to Chicago.
“On Saturday, an estimated seven million Americans across this country took to the streets—peacefully—with a singular message to President Trump and his enablers: we have no kings in the United States. That included 100,000 people in Chicago, and I was proud to be one of them. That’s [Chicago] the frontline of the President’s assault on our democracy, our civil liberties, and our rule of law,” Durbin began.
“Now I’ve been in Congress for four decades, so believe me when I say that the turnout for this march was the largest I’ve ever seen at any political gathering… This gathering of people, in the city of Chicago, without violence, expressing themselves as Americans, disagreeing with our government, which is part of democracy, was a peaceful gathering by and large… I joined the march in the city of Chicago and carried a sign that read ‘HANDS OFF CHICAGO’—and I meant it,” Durbin said.
“Chicago is a great city. It faces challenges, but all cities face challenges. These challenges must be addressed with solutions that are consistent with our American values. This President is abusing his power, fueling his cruel immigration raid policy, and unleashing the military by bringing in the National Guard from the state of Texas against immigrants and citizens alike,” Durbin said.
Durbin detailed the extreme measures taken by federal ICE, CBP, and DHS agents during the so-called “Operation Midway Blitz” in Chicago. During indiscriminate, cruel raids, federal agents have ripped people from their beds in the dead of night and detained people for hours using zip-ties.
“A few weeks ago, Chicago and the nation watched in horror as women and children—immigrants and U.S. citizens alike—were dragged from their homes in the South Shore of Chicago, detained with the use of zip ties... And just last week, ProPublica reported that, in the first nine months of the Trump Administration, ICE held over 170 American citizens across the country, kicking, dragging, beating, and detaining some of them for days. Let me repeat that—they were American citizens,” Durbin said.
“Take Maria Greeley, a Chicagoan and U.S. citizen detained by federal agents earlier this month in Chicago. She showed them her passport, but they zip-tied her and held her for hours because she ‘didn’t look like a Greeley,’” Durbin said.
“On October 3, Juan Muñoz, a trustee for the township of Oak Park in Illinois, stood with protestors outside the ICE Broadview Processing facility, alongside other elected officials. Federal agents picked him out of the crowd, shoved him to the ground and arrested him while they left his colleagues alone. They held him for eight hours,” Durbin continued. “Why did they hold Juan Muñoz for that long and not his colleagues? He was a [the only] person of color. Does this sound like the work of an administration set on reducing violent crime? I think not.”
Durbin then denounced the Trump Administration’s decision to file an emergency petition with the Supreme Court in hopes of overturning lower-court rulings that have temporarily blocked President Trump’s plans to deploy the National Guard to Chicago.
“The Founders of this nation designed the Constitution to protect generations of Americans from the very abuses we were watching unfold before our eyes. They understood the dangers of a military turned against its own people and limited its role in civilian affairs. President Trump’s claims of so-called ‘invasions’ or ‘rebellions’ or ‘emergencies’ to justify calling the military into American cities, like Chicago, are baseless. They are simply attempts to bypass laws and the checks and balances of the Constitution,” Durbin said.
“In upholding a ruling temporarily barring the deployment of troops in Chicago, the 7th Circuit Appeals Court concluded, ‘the facts do not justify the President’s actions in Illinois…’ Political opposition is not rebellion,” Durbin said. “In fact, the court noted that the Department of Homeland Security itself claims that protests have not slowed down their operations and that ICE has increased its deportations and arrests.”
“If there are legitimate concerns with maintaining law and order, protecting public safety, and controlling crime, the Constitution preserves the power to address that to the states, not the federal government,” Durbin said. “I am glad to see federal judges—including judges appointed by President Trump himself—upholding their constitutional responsibility to interpret the law and apply it to the facts.”
“It is no surprise that President Trump is now asking the Supreme Court’s conservative supermajority to greenlight his abuse of power and allow him to deploy troops regardless of statutory limits or the actual facts on the ground. The Supreme Court should reject the President’s petition. There is no emergency that would justify bypassing the regular appeals process and resolving this case on the Court’s shadow docket without the full public scrutiny that it deserves,” Durbin said.
Durbin concluded his remarks by warning his Senate colleagues that if President Trump continues to bypass laws, he could threaten any state with the deployment of troops.
“My warning to my Republican colleagues is this:…if the President is allowed to send in the military against his own citizens in Chicago without regard to the laws enacted by Congress, what guardrails are left to prevent him from doing it to you, in your home state, to the people you’re proud to represent?” Durbin said.
“We cannot sit idly by while a person who wants to be king takes us down the path to authoritarianism,” Durbin concluded his floor speech.
Video of Durbin’s remarks on the Senate floor is available here.
Audio of Durbin’s remarks on the Senate floor is available here.
Footage of Durbin’s remarks on the Senate floor is available here for TV Stations.