Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
My mother knows struggle and has taught me how to lead with compassion, the compassion that should be required for every representative on every level of government.
Voters will never wonder where I stand on an issue or if I will be there when needed. I will be side by side with them as we fight back against the Trump agenda together.
I really am focused on making sure we're doing everything we can so every single person in our country... has the right to thrive... and live in a just and equitable society.
I really truly respect and honor the fact that the majority of my district is African-American and that I have to make sure that I surround myself with people with that lens.
My mere existence as a member of Congress as a Palestinian causes a lot of fear, because I'm here as a human being, as an American, that is saying to the world that we exist.
Either you're for ending Citizens United, or you're not. So, if you're for ending Citizens United, then act like you are against corporations influencing our democratic process.
I take a very different approach to public service. I'm a person that always takes it out in the streets and in the courts... the tool box that is attached to me is very diverse.
My God, do we have some of the most amazing people. You won't find stories like ours. You almost feel like, if there's ever a need to tell an American story, just come to Detroit.
I can tell you, you know, I am a person that every - people that do really know me well know that I'm extremely passionate about fighting for my families and the residents back home.
Serving in the U.S. Congress is about much more than voting on bills. It is about taking on the corporate bullies that taint our democratic process and pushing back when the system is broken.
When we are asked to bail out corporations and banks, or pass tax bills that shift billions in public dollars out of government, we must ask ourselves, who were we truly sent here to advocate for?
I remember the different things that were happening to my family as we were getting situated and buying our first home in southwest Detroit, watching my mother learn how to drive for the first time.
I'll do everything I can to ensure the Clean Water Act is enforced here in Michigan, and I'll work to ensure everyone in Michigan has access to safe, affordable water, regardless of where they live.
Being in southwest Detroit, when my dad would want to say anything about me or my brothers or sisters, he would start speaking in Spanish to my uncle and my grandmother because we didn't understand.
When I think of immigration, I want to think of families. I want to think of unity. I want to think of a safe place, you know, free of persecution, a place where we can welcome a child that is hungry.
It is so clear that the conservatives in Congress will only settle for a bill that allows the unequal treatment of immigrants, allow them to be shoved around the system with no way to plead their case for relief.
Limiting the ability of the people to peacefully organize and partake in direct action to fight against persecution and discrimination is not only barred by the U.S. Constitution but is fundamentally un-American.
People across metro Detroit face discrimination every day in housing, employment, insurance - the list goes on. It might not always be explicit and in your face, but my residents know when they're being mistreated.
Lost in the often-vitriolic national quarrel over immigration reform is any examination of proposed measures that would result in excessive punishment, such as detention and deportation, for the most minor offenses.
You don't have to read the Quran to love me... love the actions, love the things that I do. Look at those, and that will help people get beyond whatever fear or stereotypical thing that they might be thinking about.
I am for everyone, every single person, Israeli, Palestinian, to have equal access to opportunities, to feel safe where they live, and to really be a genuine partner and a visionary around reaching peace in that region.
I remember Congressman Conyers voting against the PATRIOT Act, voting against the Iraq War when it was unpopular to. That tremendous amount of courage that comes with that kind of leadership, I mean, that's what we need.
I don't care if it's Saudi Arabia or if it's Israel or any other country. I can't imagine our members of Congress or even the residents back in the day that pushed back against apartheid in Africa not to be able to boycott.
Stolen scrap like manhole covers, railroad weights, stop signs, guard rails, and public lighting put our residents in grave danger. Not only that, but the theft is tearing apart communities with stolen church and cemetery ornaments.
I went to Detroit Public Schools: Harms Elementary, Bennett, which is now called Phoenix Academy. This is all in Southwest Detroit. I graduated from Southwestern High School, so I'm a 'Prospector,' which is what we used to call each other.
We send a lot of money - I don't know, I think it's in billions - of money to the Saudi government. We have so much tremendous leverage as the United States of America, but we seem to choose to look away when there's other interests at play.
When we shift our public dollars away from our schools and city services and into company developments, it increases the root causes of poverty: unemployment, underemployment, lack of community resources, and lack of quality public education.
There's no doubt that corporations have been getting away with dumping their pollution into our environment for decades and that they're especially emboldened to pollute in low-income communities and, typically, low-income communities of color.
Historically marginalized populations have already had less access to wealth and credit building opportunities, and the continued use of credit histories to set auto insurance pricing compounds racial discrimination and exacerbates wealth inequality.
You know, as a child of Palestinian immigrants, again, every corner of my district is a reminder of the civil rights movement, and I bring that lens, and I try to - you know, many of the Palestinians, they have called me, reached out to me via social media.
From capitalizing housing trust funds, which allow low-income people to obtain grants to fix up and stay in their homes, to creating job training programs in schools, these are the kinds of economic stimuli that will give families the opportunity to thrive.
We cannot have policies that punish people for taking action. Imagine the further harm it would have caused if the federal government banned civil rights leaders from boycotting buses in Montgomery, Alabama, or banning divestment from Apartheid South Africa.
This kind of 'separate but equal,' I've seen what it's done in the history here in America, and it didn't work. And it still hasn't worked, I mean, even in continued segregation of our schools, which has increased with the privatization of our school system.
My mom is a woman who grew up in a small farming village in the West Bank called Beit Ur El Foka. She only went to school up to 8th grade and then dropped out to go work in a tailor shop that made dresses and different embroidered designs to make money for her family.
In 2017, Trump pardoned Joe Arpaio, an Arizona sheriff who was ordered by a federal court to stop racially profiling and was convicted of criminal contempt when he refused. Arpaio, by targeting Latinx people, was violating both the U.S. Constitution and our civil rights.
Detroit can't come close to repairing the decades of neglect without addressing the crisis in our neighborhoods. I live in southwest Detroit near Woodmere Cemetery. My neighbors and I deal with the negative impacts of job loss, increased poverty, and pollution every day.
Old models of development simply seek to lure business with substantial tax breaks and then hope (and pray) that economic benefits will trickle down to residents. It has not worked for our city in the past, and it will not work for the future city that we all hope want to see.
I still remember, at the age of 12, learning that segregation had been permitted only a couple of decades before I was born and that a woman's right to vote was not even a century old. But it was great Americans who stood up, some dying for the cause, to make our country better.
As a young girl, I watched my mother hand-stitch thobes while sitting on the floor with a lamp at her side. She would make the small designs of flowers and different shapes. Just thinking about it brings up so many memories of my mother and how proud she was of being Palestinian.
Throughout my career in public service, the residents I have had the privilege of fighting for have embraced who I am, especially my Palestinian roots. This is what I want to bring to the United States Congress: an unapologetic display of the fabric of the people in this country.
Southwest Detroit has been through hell (excuse my directness) with Matty Moroun, his Bridge Company, and all his fancy-named subsidiaries. From blighted homes that my boys have to walk by to allowing his trucks to rumble down our residential streets, passing our parks, schools, and homes - we have had it.
Trump's pardon of Arpaio may not get as much attention as Russian influence or Trump's apparent obstruction of justice in the Mueller investigation. But to me, as a woman of color, it is a clear abuse of power for the U.S. president to pardon a sheriff who targeted people for arrest because of their ethnicity.
My mother raised 14 kids, with little means, from our humble house in Southwest Detroit - and now her daughter, who started school not speaking English, is going to be a congresswoman. It was so important for her to know her strength got me here, and that I'm going to fight every day with her spirit inside me.
We continue to see our elected officials working extra hard to create a 'good climate for business' that leads to disinvestment in public infrastructure and tax incentives to the detriment of cities, while enriching private business and further entrenching poverty. And our cities are told by legislators to use their bootstraps to survive.