Underwood at Joliet town hall: ‘We need to raise our voices and fight back’ against GOP budget cuts

Joliet — Over 250 concerned residents came out to Jones Elementary school in Joliet Saturday to participate in a town hall event with Democratic U.S. Representatives Lauren Underwood of Naperville and Maxwell Frost of Florida.

Underwood represents Illinois’ 14th District while Frost, who is the youngest serving member of congress at 28, represents Florida’s 10th District in the Orlando area. The discussion was moderated by Ernest Crimm III, a teacher, activist, and Emmy-nominated television producer from Joliet.

This is Underwood’s fourth town hall event in Illinois in the last week, all of which have reportedly drawn similar-sized crowds.

The Democratic lawmakers discussed ongoing issues in Washington, including the budget bill backed by President Donald Trump and passed by House Republicans, and encouraged residents to speak out before taking a series of questions from the audience.

Some of the issues raised by Underwood and Frost were the potential cuts to social safety net programs, including Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program known as SNAP, and increased action by Immigration and Customs Enforcementm (ICE), including a raid conducted Friday in Aurora.

“It’s been so distressing to see so many people denied due process,” Underwood said of the ICE arrests, before drawing jeers and boos from the crowd at the mention of her recent questioning of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem during a congressional hearing.

“I certainly expected a cabinet secretary to affirm the Fifth Amendment right to due process,” she said. “I think my shock when she didn’t showed clearly on my face.

“The question isn’t are we heading to a constitutional crisis, or when will we reach a constitutional crisis, we’re already in one,” Underwood added. “We got there in 20 short weeks. We are in a moment that we’ve never been in before and if we want to protect our democracy, we have to work together.”

“This administration wants to dehumanize groups of people so they can blame their failures on those groups of people,” said Frost. “When you don’t see others as as human as you, that’s when everything falls apart.”

‘They’re violating your rights, but they don’t expect you to realize it and fight it.’

—  U.S. Rep. Lauren Underwood

Frost elaborated on this point when asked a question from an audience member about what warning signs to look for of government interference in education.

“It always starts with something small, targeting a specific group, like in Florida with the ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill,” said Frost. “With something like that some parents who don’t have a queer student might think ‘it doesn’t matter because it doesn’t effect my student.’ But these rules effect everyone and make public schools miserable to be at. It’s stand up for everybody to stop that from happening and because it’s the right thing to do as a ... human being.”

Call to action

During the Q & A portion of the event audience members raised a number of other issues including but not limited to:

• concerns about the lack of job availability for young people graduating school;

• changes to student loans and the FAFSA program;

• cuts to federal Job Corps training programs by the .S. Department of Labor;

• cuts to veterans health services;

• changes to reduce the power of the courts,

• and rules that would allow ICE to use tax records to track down undocumented workers.

“Defeating this bill is our first priority,” Underwood said of the GOP budget. “They are taking away opportunities from us, on purpose, to fund tax cuts for billionaires.”

She then urged residents to get involved and call Republican members of congress to sway their votes.

“If we want to protect our resources we need to raise our voices and fight back,” she said. “Pick up the phone, pick a Republican congress member, call them, and tell them your story. Use your voice and don’t let them silence you.”

Underwood and Frost repeatedly emphasized the need for voters to email, call, and write letters to members of congress – even members who don’t represent them – and explain to them how proposed bills are hurting them and their communities.

“I can’t tell you which Republican to pick, but there isn’t a bad choice,” Underwood said.

“[Republican Senator] Josh Hawley, said this week he could not support the bill because of the cuts to Medicaid in it,” said Frost. “I disagree with that man on 99.999 percent of issues, but he knows the people in his state don’t want to see those cuts. We need to make more of the Republicans see that they need to be more scared of their constituents than of Donald Trump.”

When asked how residents in Illinois, and Will County can convince representatives from other states to reconsider their votes, Underwood urged sincerity.

“You have the spaces to say what you want to say regardless of where you live,” she said. “There is no wrong way to make these calls. Try to connect with them, human to human. A lot of the time, if someone answers the phone it will be an intern”

Underwood went on to explain she interned for Barrack Obama when he was a U.S. senator. “I would get calls from people telling their stories, and I’d be shook and I would go repeat those stories. We have to impress upon these people that what they’re doing is wrong and hurting people,” she said.

Frost added that if phones aren’t taking messages or are disconnect, to try emailing or writing letters, and that all it means is that the lines are overwhelmed with people reaching out.

“It’s a good thing,” he said, laughing.

Legal action

Other actions the lawmakers suggested for making a difference were attending protests, getting involved in local grass roots organizations, and, if possible, taking legal action when a policy has a direct, negative impact.

Citing the example of ICE using immigrant tax numbers to conduct raids, Underwood noted that would be an example of a case that could be taken to court.

“Those are the kind of cases that the Trump administration has been losing,” she said. “We’ve been winning so many lawsuits that now Trump is starting to bully law firms and coming after judges and trying to put barriers in place for nationwide injunctions, because they know they’re breaking the law. They’re violating your rights, but they don’t expect you to realize it and fight it.”

Underwood further encouraged all residents to read the U.S. Constitution and stay informed on their civil rights as citizens or residents of the United States.

“I know a lot of us are exhausted right now just trying to stay alive,” she added. “The chaos is exhausting, and we aren’t saying this to say this is your sole responsibility, but if you’re being directly harmed, consider filing a lawsuit.”

“If everyone who was appalled by what is going on got involved in just one organization, we’d have more resources to make a bigger difference,” Frost added.