Quotes from Pramila Jayapal

There isn't really precedent for asylum seekers' being criminally prosecuted at the border before they've had a 'credible fear' hearing. You come seeking asylum. Seeking asylum is not illegal.

If someone tells me that something can't be done, that makes me more determined to do it.

Fundamentally, I've always been a fan of actually looking at our whole state tax system and really figuring out how we reform our tax system so that everyone's paying their fair share but we don't have a lot of nickel and diming with 100 taxes that end up hitting people that maybe can't bear it the most.

I like to have my cup of green tea.

Compromise for compromise sake is never good, unless it is grounded in principles.

Civil rights icons, famous journalists, big-time movie producers may all have credits to their name that we can recognize and be grateful for, but their record of good works cannot excuse their harassment of women.

Diversity is not just about the fact that the pictures look better. I mean, they always do look better!

Districts are really different across the country, but the more that people on the progressive Left show power at the ballot box - and reclassify some of the ideas that we've called 'progressive,' but that are really mainstream ideas, like college for all - the better.

Can you be a progressive if you're anti-immigrant but pro-choice? No!

I'm not a complainer. I'm a doer. So if I see something is wrong, then I feel like I have to get in there and try to fix it.

Getting a college degree used to be free or low cost because, as a society, we saw providing higher education to young people as an investment - in them and in the future of our own country.

We are a country that has always been known for providing opportunities to people. We have lost a lot of that opportunity.

I've always believed that immigration is really about who we are as a country and what we're willing to stand up for.

The fact that the immigration issue was the first thing Trump took aim at was a good thing for me, because it's what I spent my life working on. It became a place to see what we've become as a country, and how overreach can actually serve to bring those of us on the Left and Democrats together.

Immigrants contribute more than they take. It is a lie that they take public benefits, because they don't qualify for just about every benefit.

We have to take our anger and rage and channel it into building, growing, loving, holding each other up.

It is always easier to have somebody to blame, but immigrants are not the cause of the country's economic woes.

Sometimes when really terrible things happen, something beautiful emerges out of it.

Policy is about real people and real stories, and sometimes we forget that.

Every hour that goes by with family separation policies in effect is another hour that mothers weep thinking of their children, another hour that kids are fearfully wondering where their parents have been taken, another hour that trauma deepens.

My grandmother was whip smart as well as an incredible athlete. She played tennis in her sari, cheered on the Indian team in cricket matches, and tried to convince us that her made-up words were real so she could win a Scrabble game.

When women are told that sexual harassment is 'part of the job' or when assistants of both sexes enable harassing behavior, they have bought into the culture that says such behavior is not just permissible, it is a desirable expression of power.

I am not a woman on Monday, an immigrant on Tuesday, a worker on Wednesday, and a mom on Thursday, I am all of those things all of the time, and I am going to fight for all of those things all of the time.

As we say we fight for working people, we have to make sure our policies reflect that.