I can’t believe I have to say this, but Palestinian people are not disposable. We are human beings, just like anyone else. - Rashida Tlaib

Yeah, I’m going to push back against you spending money on a hockey stadium downtown Detroit, while a mile away, not even, a few blocks away, there’s a school with no drinking water, literally shutting down the drinking fountains. So, it’s also the fact that even on the grassroots level, that transformative change that was happening, organizing in the streets of Detroit, all of a sudden just reached the halls of Congress, right?

I want you to know my mom, who’s from a small village in the West Bank. They’re literally glued. It’s like 5:00 or 6:00 in the morning. And now it’s more than that. They’re glued to the TV. My grandmother, my aunts, my uncles in Palestine are sitting by and watching their granddaughter [inaudible]. I want to tell them—I want to tell them—I want them to know, you know, as I uplift the families of the 13th Congressional District, I’ll uplift them, every single day, being who I am as a proud Palestinian American and woman and Muslim. I [inaudible] so much, because for so many years they’ve felt dehumanized. And I tell you, as a Palestinian, it means—you know, a lot of my strength comes from being Palestinian. But I can tell you, my mother’s—like the compassion this woman his, that is in me. She smiles every single time that she—this woman doesn’t even understand when people are being racist to her, because she believes that people can be better. And she is an inspiration to me in so many ways.

I don’t want to see my families scared of its own government. I don’t want my families worried about what’s going to happen after they drop their child off at school...I can’t wait to be able to vote to abolish ICE.