US Rep. Pramila Jayapal said during her comments to the Muslim Public Affairs Council that she hopes to become chair of the House Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee if Democrats regain control following the November elections, while slamming federal immigration enforcement agencies. Jayapal, who currently serves as ranking member on the immigration panel, accused Immigration and Customs Enforcement and US Customs and Border Protection of carrying out unconstitutional actions and targeting immigrant communities.

US Rep. Pramila Jayapal, the current ranking member of the House Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee, claimed during recent remarks at the Muslim Public Affairs Council that immigration is a “testing ground” for the Trump administration, saying, “If you can get away with this for immigrants, then you can extend it to all people, as we see with the efforts around denaturalization.”

“And ICE and CBP have turned into completely unconstitutional agencies that have terrorized entire communities, killed US citizens in our streets, and are jailing over 70,000 people every single night in immigrant incarceration facilities,” she said. “Regardless of immigration status, US citizens, legal permanent residents, people with valid visas, every single night, 70,000 people. Those mass detention policies have been ruled illegal by over 420 judges across the country, including a majority of judges who were appointed by Donald Trump. So this is not a partisan issue in terms of our unconstitutional actions of this administration and the attempts to hold him accountable that are still pursued and prevailing in many cases through the lower courts.”

Jayapal also criticized what she described as racial profiling in immigration enforcement and denounced the return of “racist and anti-Muslim policies like the Muslim travel ban,” criticizing the administration’s restriction on asylum access and Temporary Protected Status for migrants. The Washington Democrat additionally cited a study from the Cato Institute, claiming the Trump administration has cracked down on legal immigration more aggressively than undocumented immigration.

“In fact, there was recently a study put out by the Cato Institute that said that the Trump administration has cracked down on legal immigration twice as much as on undocumented immigration,” Jayapal said. “So let’s be clear that this is an attempt to rid us of all immigrants, regardless of immigration status. Immigration is, in many ways in my view, a testing ground. If you can get away with this for immigrants, then you can extend it to all people, as we see with the efforts around denaturalization.”

When discussing the House Judiciary Immigration Subcommittee, she said, “I hope to be chair come November,” following the closely-watched midterm elections that will determine party control of the chamber.

The comments from Jayapal come amid a separate controversy surrounding Jayapal after she revealed during a recent town hall that she had been communicating with ambassadors from Mexico and other Latin American countries about securing oil shipments to Cuba despite US sanctions on the communist island nation.

“I was in conversations with the ambassadors from Mexico and some other places, other countries in Latin America, trying to figure out how to get oil there,” Jayapal said, while also condemning US sanctions on Cuba as an “economic bombing of the infrastructure of Cuba.”