Rep. Robin Kelly (D-IL) introduces impeachment articles against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, backed by 102 House Democrats, accusing him of "incompetence" and ICE policies sparking fear in Chicago while diverting $200M to a friend’s agency. She opposes U.S. military moves in Greenland and Venezuela, calling Maduro’s rule illegitimate but rejecting regime-change. Meanwhile, Old North Church Director Emily Spence reveals its 1723 origins as a segregated space—wealthy merchants, enslaved Black and Indigenous worshippers—where seating reflected Boston’s racial-class divides; the church now balances its revolutionary legacy with marginalized histories, leaving Spence awed by its enduring, contradictory glow. [Automatically generated summary]
She's not letting us perform our oversight duties.
She has prevented us from going to detention centers.
My colleagues and I have followed what she said to the letter of the law.
I know when we tried to go to Broadview in Illinois, we did what she said, and then she still prevented us from coming into the facility.
And then she's violating the public trust, picking up people seemingly picked on based on what they look like.
No warrants, no due process.
She's definitely violating the public trust, just yanking people off the streets.
They're taking people out of cars, and then self-dealing.
She has spent $200 million of taxpayer money advertising for new ICE agents, and that money is going to a friend of hers.
And so it seems like that friend just developed that agency a few days or less than a week before that grant money became available, $200 million of taxpayers' money.
And we're still questioning who are the people behind the mask.
Many of us think, I know I think, that at least some of them are the insurrectionists that Donald Trump let out of jail.
Now, there are some of your Democratic colleagues oppose this move.
Democratic Representative Bishop of Georgia said, he's quoted as saying, quote, we've got so many things that the Congress has yet to do, and I'd hate to see us get distracted with side issues.
I know the main thing is affordability, and I know the main thing is health care.
I'm very clear on that.
But actually, when I think about what's happening in Chicago, it is affecting affordability and people's bottom line because so many people are afraid to go to work.
So that hurts their bottom line.
So many people are afraid to go shopping, afraid to go to restaurants.
So that hurts the bottom line of the economics of a community because people are afraid to go out.
They're even afraid, we've heard stories, afraid to go get health care when they're sick because they're afraid to be picked up.
These are undocumented and American citizens that are saying that.
So affordability is involved with Christy Noam and her reign of terror also.
And switching topics now to Greenland, are you in favor of any kind of a resolution to limit the president's abilities to either try to purchase Greenland or to pursue military action there?
Yes, we are filing an amendment so that he cannot either buy Greenland or attack Greenland.
You know, as we just talked about, there's an affordability problem in this country, and he's talking about buying another country and then running another country when you speak about Venezuela.
So we need to pay attention to this country because of the things happening here.
And plus, you know, a big issue was made about defunding police, but very few members of Congress even mentioned that, but it got blown up more than was actually mentioned in my opinion.
But no, I don't think the public is concerned about what ICE is doing and the money that they're receiving.
So I think the public is on our side.
They don't want to see our taxpayer money going to people attacking undocumented plus U.S. citizens.
You know, those that are coming to the border, let's help them instead of going to the country for oil, I would add, not really for the right reasons that he, well, he didn't claim that.
Said oil, and that we're going to run that country when we need to look at our own country and what's going on here.
It has been home to wealthy merchants who own these pews, but also poorer families, children, black and indigenous people, both free and enslaved.
Though this was a community that came together to worship and was united in their faith, you'll notice just even through the seating in this church, the box pews, the hierarchical seating with the balcony upstairs, that this was a space that was meant to separate people.
Separate them by how much money they had, the class that they occupied, but also by their skin color, their perceived race at the time.
I love being able to bring to life the stories of the Black and Indigenous people who sat in the North Gallery, whose stories for so long were left out and not considered important to the story of this church.
Over the years, it has been an intentionality in both the historic site and in the congregation to create a more open and welcoming space here at Old North.
When the church had to close during the revolution, these people lost their community.
And I think so many of us today can relate to that, having lived through the COVID-19 pandemic.
I look at the funeral and burial records, and there was so much death in these people's lives.
I think having a place to come together, to feel united, and feel like there was at least a place to grapple with that uncertainty together with a community, that was a big draw for people.
We hope that today, this church, which is seen as a symbol of freedom, people can come here and see their stories and also recognize how complicated and complex the story of this church is.
One of my favorite times to be at Old North is in the evening, just after we've closed.
It's a really beautiful, peaceful time, and the lighting in the church really just makes this space glow.
That's when I can really feel the presence and the history that's here.
unidentified
I think about all of the people who have been here in this space.