Top 66 Rashida Tlaib Quotes

The first thing I think about when somebody says you’re going to be the first Muslim is celebrate this moment.

When we are asked to bail out corporations and banks, or pass tax bills that shift billions in public dollars out of government, we must ask ourselves, who were we truly sent here to advocate for?

We have to be a nation of compassion and some sort of humanity when it comes to the treatment of other human beings.

As a social justice lawyer, I started marches against Trump here in Detroit.

I want people to feel like they have access to Congress, that they have access to government.

This kind of ‘separate but equal,’ I’ve seen what it’s done in the history here in America, and it didn’t work. And it still hasn’t worked, I mean, even in continued segregation of our schools, which has increased with the privatization of our school system.

We send a lot of money – I don’t know, I think it’s in billions – of money to the Saudi government. We have so much tremendous leverage as the United States of America, but we seem to choose to look away when there’s other interests at play.

We cannot afford to deliberately cripple our cities by transferring public tax dollars to private entities for benefits that are unclear at best.

My God, do we have some of the most amazing people. You won’t find stories like ours. You almost feel like, if there’s ever a need to tell an American story, just come to Detroit.

As a young girl, I watched my mother hand-stitch thobes while sitting on the floor with a lamp at her side. She would make the small designs of flowers and different shapes. Just thinking about it brings up so many memories of my mother and how proud she was of being Palestinian.

My mother raised 14 kids, with little means, from our humble house in Southwest Detroit – and now her daughter, who started school not speaking English, is going to be a congresswoman. It was so important for her to know her strength got me here, and that I’m going to fight every day with her spirit inside me.

I really am focused on making sure we’re doing everything we can so every single person in our country… has the right to thrive… and live in a just and equitable society.

In my case, I am always that odd candidate that doesn’t look like everybody else.

I went to a predominantly African-American school. I didn’t even understand our immigration system. I knew my parents immigrated here.

I still remember, at the age of 12, learning that segregation had been permitted only a couple of decades before I was born and that a woman’s right to vote was not even a century old. But it was great Americans who stood up, some dying for the cause, to make our country better.

People across metro Detroit face discrimination every day in housing, employment, insurance – the list goes on. It might not always be explicit and in your face, but my residents know when they’re being mistreated.

We must stop tax giveaways to rich corporations and developers while our schools are crumbling and people are losing their homes.

I’m very proud to be Arab.

Detroit can’t come close to repairing the decades of neglect without addressing the crisis in our neighborhoods. I live in southwest Detroit near Woodmere Cemetery. My neighbors and I deal with the negative impacts of job loss, increased poverty, and pollution every day.

Trump has created an atmosphere wherein my sons are questioning their place and identity as Arab Americans and Muslims.

Concern for ‘national security’ has introduced unprecedented insecurity to living in the United States as a legal permanent resident.

Obviously, I am a member of Congress, and things that I say are elevated on a national level, and I understand that very clearly.

Limiting the ability of the people to peacefully organize and partake in direct action to fight against persecution and discrimination is not only barred by the U.S. Constitution but is fundamentally un-American.

Resources and money can change people’s lives today, where legislation can take years – up to 10, 15 years sometimes before it really, really impacts people.

A photo does not mean I agree with anything someone says.

I don’t want our right to be able to speak and dissent to be taken away.

I love being a mom.

It is so clear that the conservatives in Congress will only settle for a bill that allows the unequal treatment of immigrants, allow them to be shoved around the system with no way to plead their case for relief.

We’re going to have more women run for office. We can shift what’s going on in Congress.

I remember Congressman Conyers voting against the PATRIOT Act, voting against the Iraq War when it was unpopular to. That tremendous amount of courage that comes with that kind of leadership, I mean, that’s what we need.

I’m so much of a proud Detroiter.

Detroit can become a national model for urban revitalization, but to do so, it must break free from past development models.

My mother knows struggle and has taught me how to lead with compassion, the compassion that should be required for every representative on every level of government.

In 2017, Trump pardoned Joe Arpaio, an Arizona sheriff who was ordered by a federal court to stop racially profiling and was convicted of criminal contempt when he refused. Arpaio, by targeting Latinx people, was violating both the U.S. Constitution and our civil rights.

Either you’re for ending Citizens United, or you’re not. So, if you’re for ending Citizens United, then act like you are against corporations influencing our democratic process.

No matter how much the private sector crows that corporate tax breaks will lead to more jobs or robust economic activity, such benefits rarely materialize.

I am for everyone, every single person, Israeli, Palestinian, to have equal access to opportunities, to feel safe where they live, and to really be a genuine partner and a visionary around reaching peace in that region.

Trump’s years in office are years we cannot get back. But more dangerous than the loss of time is allowing Trump’s precedents to take root.

I take a very different approach to public service. I’m a person that always takes it out in the streets and in the courts… the tool box that is attached to me is very diverse.

We cannot have policies that punish people for taking action. Imagine the further harm it would have caused if the federal government banned civil rights leaders from boycotting buses in Montgomery, Alabama, or banning divestment from Apartheid South Africa.

My mere existence as a member of Congress as a Palestinian causes a lot of fear, because I’m here as a human being, as an American, that is saying to the world that we exist.

Allowing workers’ compensation for all injured workers is a better system than allowing people to be part of a black market of undocumented workers.

I believe that we shouldn’t be supporting any form of aid towards countries that are killing people that are innocent.

I’m tired of just introducing legislation that’s just not going to change our lives. It’s going beyond that.

When we shift our public dollars away from our schools and city services and into company developments, it increases the root causes of poverty: unemployment, underemployment, lack of community resources, and lack of quality public education.

Trump’s pardon of Arpaio may not get as much attention as Russian influence or Trump’s apparent obstruction of justice in the Mueller investigation. But to me, as a woman of color, it is a clear abuse of power for the U.S. president to pardon a sheriff who targeted people for arrest because of their ethnicity.

You know, as a child of Palestinian immigrants, again, every corner of my district is a reminder of the civil rights movement, and I bring that lens, and I try to – you know, many of the Palestinians, they have called me, reached out to me via social media.

We demand Congress access and publicly release Donald Trump’s tax returns!

I was the third parent, growing up, and it did make me a very overly responsible adult.

My dad’s first-ever real true job was at Ford Motor Company. He was a UAW member.

I was my mother’s translator until I was probably 12 years old, and I remember how people looked at her.

Old models of development simply seek to lure business with substantial tax breaks and then hope (and pray) that economic benefits will trickle down to residents. It has not worked for our city in the past, and it will not work for the future city that we all hope want to see.

I’m constantly working, and I’ve earned everything that I’ve been able to achieve on my own, and that’s what being the eldest of 14 taught me.

Big money has hijacked our politics.

Social niceties are not in order for men who would turn away refugees fleeing for their lives based on their faith to have them suffer in camps.

I think social media brings another dynamic to running for office so publicly.

How long do we have to keep fighting for affordable prescription drugs?

Throughout my career in public service, the residents I have had the privilege of fighting for have embraced who I am, especially my Palestinian roots. This is what I want to bring to the United States Congress: an unapologetic display of the fabric of the people in this country.