“We can never be afraid to stand up for what is right, no matter what others may say. And sometimes, if that means taking a lonely road, if what we are standing for is true, then perhaps moonlight or sunshine will light our way and make it less lonely.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“What makes America great is our commitment to our values of inclusivity and opportunity for all.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“Immigrants contribute more than they take. It is a lie that they take public benefits, because they don’t qualify for just about every benefit.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“I am not a woman on Monday, an immigrant on Tuesday, a worker on Wednesday, and a mom on Thursday, I am all of those things all of the time, and I am going to fight for all of those things all of the time.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“As an immigrant, I have lived, in a way, the American dream, and I want to make sure that opportunity is available for everybody.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“When bosses, leaders, and powerful men and women ignore or deny the accounts of harassment victims, they reinforce the idea that harassers are playing the game as they should and that the rest of us should fall in line.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“There isn’t really precedent for asylum seekers’ being criminally prosecuted at the border before they’ve had a ‘credible fear’ hearing. You come seeking asylum. Seeking asylum is not illegal.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“History has always judged silence and complicity harshly in these times of moral consequence.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“Sometimes when really terrible things happen, something beautiful emerges out of it.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“The vast majority of immigrants – regardless of the conditions of war and poverty that may wrack their home countries – come and contribute to their new home country: building our roads, caring for our homes, children, and elders, and serving as doctors, lawyers, employers, and innovators.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“Those who have the most power – whether famous TV anchors, rich Hollywood moguls, judges, Members of Congress, or the president of the United States – must decide how to exert that power: for corruption or for good.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“President Trump has harnessed the fear and prejudice that have accompanied every wave of immigrants in United States history, and stoked those fears to further his own agenda.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“When women are told that sexual harassment is ‘part of the job’ or when assistants of both sexes enable harassing behavior, they have bought into the culture that says such behavior is not just permissible, it is a desirable expression of power.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“Having a strong race lens means you understand racism is threaded through and institutionalized in all of our systems and our very perceptions, threaded through how someone looks at you, treats you, thinks about you and your potential.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“I’m not a complainer. I’m a doer. So if I see something is wrong, then I feel like I have to get in there and try to fix it.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“I would attend a State of the Union by a president with whom I disagree if I felt she or he was otherwise respectful and adhered to basic moral values or basic tenets of civility and respect.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“My grandmother was whip smart as well as an incredible athlete. She played tennis in her sari, cheered on the Indian team in cricket matches, and tried to convince us that her made-up words were real so she could win a Scrabble game.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“There is no question that we, as a country, need to deal with economic inequality across the country, and we need to make sure we have good-paying jobs for everyone.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“It is always easier to have somebody to blame, but immigrants are not the cause of the country’s economic woes.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“I am on the side of the working person across the country.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“The fact that the immigration issue was the first thing Trump took aim at was a good thing for me, because it’s what I spent my life working on. It became a place to see what we’ve become as a country, and how overreach can actually serve to bring those of us on the Left and Democrats together.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“Districts are really different across the country, but the more that people on the progressive Left show power at the ballot box – and reclassify some of the ideas that we’ve called ‘progressive,’ but that are really mainstream ideas, like college for all – the better.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“We on the Left are very good at criticizing people, but we need to build the base to pull people to the Left.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“Can you be a progressive if you’re anti-immigrant but pro-choice? No!”
― Pramila Jayapal
“If you look at the future of the Democratic Party, things like raising the minimum wage – Democrats need to get behind raising the minimum wage and be clear on where we stand on trade deals.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“As we say we fight for working people, we have to make sure our policies reflect that.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“I want to remind women of color out there to stand your ground, and don’t ever be afraid to speak up.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“After 9/11, I had just become an American citizen, and I remember sitting in front of my TV set watching the news of the attacks, in tears. I remember thinking to myself, ‘Nothing is ever going to be the same in this country for people who look like me.’”
― Pramila Jayapal
“My big idea is that democracy can only work properly if you have truly representative people at the table.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“If someone tells me that something can’t be done, that makes me more determined to do it.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“Ripping children away from their parents has a particular shameful history, both in this country and around the world.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“We must be clear: Donald Trump is lying when he conflates immigrants coming across the border with MS-13 gangs.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“Individuals whose asylum claims have been accepted have gone on to become professors, soldiers in our military, artists, and more.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“Every hour that goes by with family separation policies in effect is another hour that mothers weep thinking of their children, another hour that kids are fearfully wondering where their parents have been taken, another hour that trauma deepens.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“We are a country that has always been known for providing opportunities to people. We have lost a lot of that opportunity.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“I was on the committee that helped raise the minimum wage here in Seattle. I introduced a statewide bill to raise the minimum wage in Washington state my first year in the state senate, and I really believe that raising the federal minimum wage, while not the answer to everything, addresses a lot of the issues at the very bottom.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“We have to have a planet to pass on to the next generation, and these issues of climate change and climate justice and the disproportionate burdens that communities of color actually bear from our damaging climate is a huge issue.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“I have my chops in organizing, and I know how to create political space through movement building.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“Trump has hated Amazon for a long time, and I think that that came out in many interviews that he’s done with ‘Vanity Fair’ and with others.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“Fundamentally, I’ve always been a fan of actually looking at our whole state tax system and really figuring out how we reform our tax system so that everyone’s paying their fair share but we don’t have a lot of nickel and diming with 100 taxes that end up hitting people that maybe can’t bear it the most.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“As difficult as my story is, it’s nothing compared to the people I’ve worked with. And so I just want to do everything I can to make sure that America continues to be a land of opportunity and hope for people and refuge for people from all over the world.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“I feel like young people, more than anyone in the country, always have their moral compass on perfectly straight.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“This is the country that we are turning over to young people, and there is going to be no country left at this rate because Trump is destroying the soul of who we are.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“I came to the United States by myself when I was 16 years old. My parents had about $5,000 in their bank account, and they used it all to send me here because they truly believed that this country was where I was going to get the best education and have the best opportunities.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“What Republicans so cynically refer to as ‘chain migration’ is actually family-based immigration – a humane and compassionate policy of reunifying families. It allows spouses to be together, siblings to support each other, and children to be with their parents. It allows the immigrants who are already here to be successful.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“It took me 17 years to become a U.S. citizen.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“If there is one thing that resonates for women, it is that regardless of where we come from or what we look like, we want to be fully recognized for the breadth of our contributions.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“For immigrant women, the very act of immigration is about opportunity, equality, and freedom. Women immigrants come to America to care for their families, escape gender-based violence, or express their sexual identity.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“For immigrant women, fighting for some of the standard platforms of the women’s movement may feel unthinkable when deportation is staring you in the face every day.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“We need to expand the idea of choice to be about all the choices we make in our lives: including which country we choose to live in so we can be whole and full women.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“Before running for the Washington State Senate in 2014, I had spent 20 years as an activist. I had always believed that we needed to push for change on the outside, through community organizing and advocacy.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“We don’t get a more responsive government unless we start to systematically run organizing campaigns to change the way government works.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“I love my district, the 37th Legislative District in Washington State, where I have lived for more than 20 years.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“I’m conscious of my race and ethnicity in the legislature – it’s hard not to be.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“OneAmerica worked over the course of a decade to bring the movement of immigrants and communities of color together with the movement for marriage equality in Washington.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“Gays and lesbians gained rights in this country though activism and organizing, creating political space and demanding change so that lawmakers and justices could do what they knew was right. That organizing allowed Americans to get to know gays and lesbians as our daughters and sons, our neighbors, and our friends.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“Getting a college degree used to be free or low cost because, as a society, we saw providing higher education to young people as an investment – in them and in the future of our own country.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“We need to incentivize states across our country to spend on higher education and ensure that we go back to allowing people to go to college tuition-free.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“Profiting from student loans is usury, and we just can’t continue to allow it.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“There’s nothing normal about graduating with massive student debt, where you live in fear of predatory debt collectors and wage garnishers even as you are starting to live your life.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“Certainly there are many Congress members who have been arrested in the past on immigration issues and will continue to because we all understand that staying silent is not an option.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“Corporations and special interests have their voice in Congress, and they have too many members scared of their power. What Congress needs is a progressive voice who is unafraid to take on these powerful interests – who is willing to fight for all Americans, not just the wealthiest 1 percent.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“When I was a little girl, my dad always said to me that I was going to be this great businesswoman, that I was going to be the CEO of IBM. So that’s what I came into the world thinking, that I was going to go into the business world and make my mark there.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“I come from a state in India that is a matrilineal state, Kerala. And so women really are seen as very powerful.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“I have a little yoga ritual that I do just to move my body around. Whatever I do, it’s usually very fast because often I don’t have the kind of time that I would like to.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“I’ve always thought of the United States as a place where so much was possible and so many opportunities were out there.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“Policy is about real people and real stories, and sometimes we forget that.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“Statistics are just a compilation of people’s stories put on paper, and legislation is our attempt to address those real challenges for people.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“Some people have called me the anti-Trump, and I’m so proud.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“I’ve been told to go back to my country so many times, I can’t even count.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“I think what I learned is that just because somebody says you can’t talk to them or just because somebody says they don’t have an answer for you, you don’t stop.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“If you’re an opposition party, you are actively using the power you have to oppose the ideas of the other party.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“There were not that many people who were willing to come out and stand up for Muslims or stand up against the abuses of the Bush administration. That was post-9/11, so I think there was a lot of fear at the time about exactly what that meant – were they unpatriotic if they stood up?”
― Pramila Jayapal
“People who think that the immigration system is easy and people should just apply legally – it just isn’t that easy.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“I never thought I would run for office.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“Diversity is not just about the fact that the pictures look better. I mean, they always do look better!”
― Pramila Jayapal
“I’ve always believed that immigration is really about who we are as a country and what we’re willing to stand up for.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“My message to women – including women of color – stand strong. Refuse to be minimized or patronized. Let all the small guys out there be intimidated by you.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“Racism, sexism, and age-ism are all alive and well in the U.S. House.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“I’m the first South Asian woman to be elected to the House of Representatives.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“I have an incredibly supportive family.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“I’m an organizer at heart. Organizers know that giving information, being in front of people, talking to people, to build our movement for the kind of country that we see is the most important thing.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“I actually had a number of different careers. I worked on Wall Street; I was a Master’s in Business. I left that to work in the public sector.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“I became an immigrant, civil and human rights advocate, then the first South Asian elected to the Washington State Legislature and the only woman of color in the Washington State Senate, and then was elected in 2016 to the United States Congress.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“Immigration is about more than just who comes here and who is allowed to stay. It is about who we are as a country and what we are willing to stand up for.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“I really get my best work done in the morning, so if I have to edit speeches or comments, that all happens before I get to work.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“I usually wake up really early because I keep myself on East Coast time.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“I like to have my cup of green tea.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“I like being on a plane with no phone service because I get so much work done.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“The American people expect their leaders to condemn white supremacy in unambiguous terms. President Trump not only failed at condemning white supremacists and neo-Nazis, he stood up for them – for that, he must be censured.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“We have to remember that disagreeing with people is fine; it is dehumanizing people that is not, and when that happens, we have to be ready to speak up.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“Compromise for compromise sake is never good, unless it is grounded in principles.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“I am grateful for my family, friends, and all those who send constant love and support – you are my energy and my hope. You teach me, love me even when I’m wrong, and let me ride the challenges and come out whole.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“Civil rights icons, famous journalists, big-time movie producers may all have credits to their name that we can recognize and be grateful for, but their record of good works cannot excuse their harassment of women.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“Rather than name-calling and arguing about whether it is appropriate or not to employ radical tactics, we progressives need to start listening to each other.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“We have to take our anger and rage and channel it into building, growing, loving, holding each other up.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“Regardless of who is elected president in 2016, we all still live together. Each of us has a different role to play, but we all have to hold the collective space for movement-building together. It’s the only way we move forward.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“We the people are sick and tired of the criminalization of immigrants, sick to our hearts to see Trump’s family separation policies rip families apart across our country.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“Trump can embrace dictators and gulags, but we the people stand for human rights, for dignity, for keeping families together.”
― Pramila Jayapal
“My mother, with a Master’s in English Literature, taught me to appreciate language and that words matter.”
― Pramila Jayapal
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