At a May Day Strong Coalition rally on Thursday, Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-FL) spoke about Elon Musk and President Trump.
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00:00We are going to fight for every single person.
00:24The human rights of every human.
00:27Donald Trump wants to tell people in this country that immigrants are poisoning the blood of this nation.
00:37Immigrants are the blood of this nation.
00:42My mom came here from Cuba.
00:44I'm proud to be the first Afro-Cubano in the United States Congress.
00:50I'm proud to also come from Haitian heritage.
00:54Do we have any Haitians here? Haiti?
00:57All right.
00:58But I'm just proud to be here with you all today on International Workers Day and on May Day,
01:04where we tell the country that we're fed up and we're done with these neo-fascists,
01:11with these authoritarian figures, blaming the problems of the nation on the immigrant and on the immigrant worker,
01:18which are essential workers, making it so that way our nation can have what it needs to succeed.
01:25Immigrants that pay more into this system than they get out.
01:29And we're here to tell Donald Trump no more.
01:33We're here to tell Elon Musk we're not going to have a billionaire takeover of our nation.
01:39That we are America.
01:41That we're not going to sit by as this authoritarian regime tries to take over and deport people for speaking out against war.
01:49Deport people and change their status because they disagree with their speech.
01:55This is why I went to El Salvador just a couple weeks ago to fight for the release of Quirma Abrego Garcia and every other immigrant that is being held in El Salvador.
02:13Because the Republicans like to spend a lot of time talking about American exceptionalism.
02:19And then they want to take away the one thing that makes America exceptional,
02:23which is that the Constitution is not just for citizens.
02:27The Constitution is for every person on this soil, on this land.
02:32And we also have to be honest because they're not going for every single immigrant.
02:40They're going for immigrants that look a certain way.
02:44They're going for immigrants that come from certain places.
02:48It's racist.
02:50It's white supremacy in the White House.
02:54It's white supremacy in the Capitol.
02:57But here's what we have to know.
03:00They are scared.
03:02And they are weak.
03:04We have to call them weak because authoritarians, when they get in power, they're never satisfied with the power they have.
03:12So they do illegal things.
03:14They tiptoe outside the law.
03:16And then they look at the people.
03:18And if the people are quiet, if the other party is quiet, they take it as a yes.
03:25They say, well, no one's speaking out, so I guess I can continue to do it.
03:30Strong presidents pass their agenda into law.
03:35He can't do that because he's a weak president.
03:39That doesn't mean harm isn't being done.
03:42But it means that our power, the people's power, is greater than those in power right now.
03:48And that's why today is so important, because it's about solidarity.
03:55And solidarity without action is just empathy.
03:58We don't need empathy right now.
04:01We don't need just prayer right now.
04:03We need people to pray with their feet.
04:06We need people to put sweat equity on the line for every immigrant, for every worker across the entire nation.
04:13From the farm workers in Central Florida, in Apotka, Florida, where I'm from, to all across this nation.
04:20And to all across this world, because we're all part of the grand mosaic of humanity.
04:25And at the end of the day, this is about love.
04:29Because if you love somebody, you want them to be safe.
04:33If you love somebody, you want them to be able to have one job, and that one job be dignified, pay a thrivable wage,
04:41and be safe in their communities.
04:44And that's why I'm proud to be with you here today.
04:47And the last thing I'll say before I leave is this.
04:50This is the moment for organizers.
04:52This is the moment for politicians to be organizers.
04:56To be on the streets with people.
04:58And when we're in the institution to say, we're not the minority, we're the opposition.
05:03And when you don't have all the power that you want, you use all the power that you got.
05:08And as I've traveled this nation, I can tell you, we have a lot of damn power in this moment.
05:14And I know that we will win.
05:17And the real last thing I'll say, sorry, I'm from the south.
05:20The real last thing I'll say is this.
05:23We say, si se puede.
05:25But one of my favorite things is the story of where that comes from.
05:28And it didn't just come from a political campaign.
05:31For those of you who don't know, Cesar Chavez, Dolores Huerta, a fast for workers' rights, lasting weeks.
05:41And some people started to feel doubtful.
05:44They said, can we do this?
05:46Can we have rights for farm workers in Arizona and across the nation?
05:50They came up and they asked, can we do this?
05:53I don't think we can do it.
05:55No se puede.
05:56I don't think it's possible.
05:58And Dolores stood straight up and said, in Arizona, si se puede.
06:04And today we say, in the nation of America, in the United States, si se puede.
06:10In Florida, si se puede.
06:13Across the country, si se puede.
06:16So thank you all so much.
06:17God bless you.
06:18Let's win.