“So-called extremist leaders have a plan to attack hard-won freedoms and rights on a country-by-country basis as part of their national agenda,” Harris said at the annual UnidosUS 2023 conference in Chicago.
Across the country, he warned, these extremist leaders are “demonizing, attacking, and persecuting immigrants,” but they’re also going against reproductive rights, voting, and even banning books.
He pointed to a new Florida law that requires companies to determine an employee’s immigration status and imposes penalties for hiring illegal immigrants.
Harris believed that this measure was designed “so that people live in fear,” according to a report published by the “Hill” newspaper.
At the same time, he criticized the state of Texas over a barrier about 305 meters high located in the waters of the Rio Grande designed to prevent migrants from crossing the US-Mexico border.
The DOJ had sued that state the day before over the floating buoys, in an effort to force Republican Gov. Greg Abbott to remove them.
The Department of Justice noted that we’re seeing reports that authorities pushed children and pregnant women who crossed, and sent them back to the Rio Grande, adding that it was “inhumane, outrageous and un-American.”
Harris also rejected a number of Republican-led states that have enacted stricter abortion laws since the Supreme Court overturned the 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade last year.
In this regard, he pointed to efforts by conservatives to limit voting rights, and the LGBT community’s continued attempt to veto books, particularly those on African American history.
With all of these qualifications, the United States can enter into any of the reports it submits to convict others.
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