“The so-called extremist leaders have a plan to attack hard-won freedoms and rights from state to state as part of their national agenda,” Harris said at the 2023 UnidosUS annual conference in Chicago.
As he warned, “these extremist leaders are demonizing, grabbing, and persecuting immigrants across the country,” but they are also violating reproductive rights, voting rights, and even banning books.
He pointed to a new Florida law that requires companies to determine an employee’s immigration status and penalizes hiring undocumented immigrants.
According to The Hill newspaper’s report, Harris said the measure was intended “to get people to live in fear”.
At the same time, he criticized Texas for the 1,000-foot barrier in the waters of the Rio Grande designed to prevent migrants from crossing the United States-Mexico border.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) sued that state the day before over the floating buoys and tried to force Republican Gov. Greg Abbott to remove them.
We are seeing reports that authorities have pushed children and pregnant women who were crossing the Rio Grande and sent them back up the Rio Grande, the DOJ noted, adding that this was “inhumane, outrageous, and unAmerican.”
Harris also disapproved of a number of Republican-led states that have passed stricter abortion laws since the Supreme Court overturned the 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision last year.
In this regard, he cited conservative efforts to restrict voting rights, the LGBTQ community and the ongoing attempt to veto books, particularly on African American history.
With all of these credentials, the United States could well play a role in its reports to condemn others.
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