Congressman Adriano Espaillat

Posted Mar. 6 2025

 

Editor’s Note: The following is the Democratic response to President Trump’s Joint Session by U.S. Congressman Adriano Espaillat on March 4, 2025:

 

Good evening, I am Congressman Adriano Espaillat, chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

 

Tonight, and for the last 45 days, we’ve seen a president who acts more like a king, than like a president. From the day of his inauguration, he’s signed hundreds of executive orders, from changing the Gulf of Mexico’s name to declaring English our national language to attempting to nullify laws and regulations that support diversity in our society.

 

I came to this country in 1964. It doesn’t matter if your family has been here 500 years or five, we are all here to fight for the American dream.

 

Tonight, I speak to you from Borinquen Health Center in East Harlem, in my New York district

 

I know the community you live in has a Borinquen Health Center – a community health center where neighbors feel comfortable getting vaccinated, taking their kids to the doctor and getting medical advice whether they have papers or not.

 

But tonight, the president did not speak of how to strengthen community clinics that in good times and bad take care of our neighbors – they are strong pillars of our economy and our way of life.

 

Mi gente, whether we’ve been here for twenty generations, twenty years or twenty days, we came to the United States of America for the American dream – the possibility of achieving a better life and creating a better future for our children through hard work, embracing diversity and making the best of the opportunities this great nation gives to us all.

 

Tonight, and for the last 45 days, we’ve heard a president lie, create an environment of terror for the immigrant community, yell at his adversaries and forget that what we want is an affordable, secure nation that’s respected around the world for its liberties and its democracy.

 

When he was a candidate he yelled from the mountaintops about the price of a dozen eggs as a metaphor for the cost of living, but tonight he did not speak about measures taken to lower that inflation and interest rates.

 

Too many people, even full-time workers, still cannot buy a dignified home for their families, and every day that seems more like an unattainable dream.

 

They pay half their income in exorbitant rent. These high costs often get in the way of young peoples’ desire to start a family.

 

We heard a president speak of economic policies that will be damaging for you and me: Tariffs, tax cuts for his friends and mass firings at government agencies.

 

Let me begin with tariffs. They are a punishment for our neighbors, Mexico and Canada. Trump wants to be the tough guy on the block, not giving a care to his tariffs’ impact when we go to the supermarket or try to buy appliances.

 

Let’s be clear: Today a dozen eggs costs 96 percent more than last year.

 

The second measure: Tax cuts that aim to consolidate political and economic power for the small group of billionaires who paid for his campaign.

 

Meanwhile, they want to dismantle Medicaid like the ones offered by Borinquén Health Center, student loans and the help our working class receives from the government – and pays for with their taxes.

 

And the government job cuts President Trump is executing through the richest man in the planet, Elon Musk, are an inhumane, poorly planned, insane measure.

 

In fact, as was proven last week – no matter how loud they yell their arguments still make no sense.

 

These disastrous results can be avoided. But air accidents are more common. The quality of weather reports is diminishing.

 

If a hurricane or a fire approach, they will be more difficult to address, because Donald Trump has fired so many scientists.

 

And Trump wants to dismantle FEMA and its reconstruction funds.

 

Our services will be impacted but Trump’s friends will keep getting wealthier.

 

Last week, I joined House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries to denounce the case of a neighbor, an American citizen who was detained by ICE despite carrying federal ID.

 

Trump’s immigration policies are not designed – as he and his allies claim – to deport criminals who should be deported, but to create a reign of terror.

 

What happened to my neighbor can happen to us all: To citizens, to immigrants, to our friends and family.

 

We want a new immigration law that secures the border, protects dreamers, protects the farmworkers who pick our crops and protects the immigrant families that strive to be part of our nation’s prosperity.

 

This administration sees the border as a war zone, as a danger to the country.

 

Democrats know the border – from Brownsville to San Diego – is a prosperous region, a hardworking region full of national pride and economic vision.

 

The vision President Trump described tonight is simple: Tax cuts for the rich that will be paid with cuts to our Medicaid, Medicare, and key social and educational services.

 

Democrats in Congress are united against this waste, this Republican betrayal.

 

In the meantime, Latinos, Hispanics, we will keep working, building toward economic development, supporting our small businesses.

 

We are 65 million strong: From doctors to farmers, we are the beating heart of this economy and this country.

 

I came to this country in 1964. It doesn’t matter if your family has been here 500 years or five, we are all here to fight for the American dream.

 

And we won’t let a tinpot king and his court of jesters dismantle the democracy we’ve all built over 250 years.

 

 

Representative Espaillat is the first Dominican American to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives and represents New York’s Thirteenth Congressional District. First elected to Congress in 2016, Representative Espaillat is serving his fifth term in Congress. Rep. Espaillat currently serves as a member of the influential U.S. House Committee on Appropriations responsible for funding the federal government’s vital activities and serves as Ranking Member of the Legislative Branch Subcommittee of the committee during the 119th Congress. He is Chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC), a member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC), and serves as a Senior Whip of the Democratic Caucus.