Congressman Mark DeSaulnier didn’t refrain from using blunt language to describe President Donald Trump during a visit earlier this month to Diablo Valley College.
“[Trump] started the war. He’s created a huge mess with huge consequences to everybody,” the congressman said.
Rep. DeSaulnier, a Democrat who represents the 10th congressional district covering central and eastern Contra Costa County, attended a student forum hosted by United Latino Voices and DVC’s Social Justice program on April 2.
He anchored the talk around the ongoing war in Iran — a conflict he condemned as “completely irresponsible, unconstitutional, and illegal.”
DeSaulnier said the cascading consequences are symbolic of Trump’s “characteristic playbook of force.”
“Thinking you can solve problems with a bunch of missiles only makes it worse,” he explained. “This is a consequence of not being accountable. You’re supposed to go through a dialogue by going to Congress.”
Democrats’ attempts in Congress to restrict the war have repeatedly failed due to Republic opposition.
Since its sudden start on Feb. 28, the war has had immense worldwide impacts. Blockades and disruptions at the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint of 20% of the world’s oil supply, caused crude oil prices to skyrocket to over $100 per barrel. Despite Trump’s recent claims that “gas prices have come down,” consumers have felt a 49% rise in gas prices since January.
Consequently, as the war’s death toll exceeds 3,000 casualties, Democrats like DeSaulnier have shifted their focus elsewhere to oppose the Trump Administration.
“His executive orders are so outrageous and illegal,” said DeSaulnier. “But it takes too long for the courts to react. So we’re going to learn how to be more aggressive and make sure that they can respond more quickly.”
With the Department of Homeland Security emerging from a 76-day-long shutdown over disagreements on funding ICE, and many of Trump’s executive orders trapped in litigation, DeSaulnier’s tactics suggest a more unified campaign by his party — one that he said should have come sooner.
“We weren’t prepared for a president like this at all,” DeSaulnier said, referring to the violence of the Trump Administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration. “It’s a lot of suffering.”
Agencies like ICE and Border Patrol have controversially deported nearly 3 million immigrants, actions that have resulted in the killings of U.S. citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis in January.
In the aftermath, Republicans have asked for $141 billion to further the immigration crackdown, despite two thirds of Americans opposing the Administration’s tactics.
“If the Border Patrol was a military, they would be the fourth largest military by their budget in the world. What the hell do they need that kind of money for?” said DeSaulnier.
For residents in central Contra Costa County, ICE has posed a particular threat due to the Federal Immigration Court located in Concord — spurring many locals into activism to protect their immigrant neighbors.
Now, with the impending closure of the only other immigration court in the Bay Area, located in San Francisco, residents here fear an increased ICE presence.
“Concord is a good place to have a court,” DeSaulnier explained. “It’s more accessible and there’s more nonprofits and people who will hold them accountable and be present. But transferring everything from San Francisco out here? That’s too much in one place.”
Due to understaffing, the U.S. immigration system is severely backlogged with cases. To DeSaulnier, closing the court in San Francisco would only worsen the problem.
“We’re going to send a letter [to the government],” he said. “It’s all you can do as the minority party, other than go out and protest.”
Quoting Vladimir Lenin, the leader of Russia’s Bolshevik Revolution more than a century ago, DeSaulnier said: “He who moves the next positions of power in history, has the commanding heights.”
“The commanding heights of moral authority is what the United States should be trying to do: be honest about our shortcomings.”