MISSOULA — Seven Montana Lawmakers traveled to Minnesota this week to join over 100 legislators from 27 states in a Day of Solidarity.
Shane Morigeau, a Democratic state senator from Missoula, was one of the seven. He says the group is responding to federal immigration operations they view as constitutional overreach.
Morigeau tells MTN that federal enforcement has created fear in communities and in our country. He says what's happening in Minnesota represents a broader threat to constitutional rights that could impact all Americans, including Montanans.
"We can't remain idle because the diminishment of one person's rights is a diminishment of all of our rights. And I think if we remain idle and stand on the sidelines, um, people are gonna continue to chip away, chip away at those rights, um, and eventually, what happens when you chip away at rights over time, you have none," Morigeau said. "And so I do think um our basic dignity is at stake and um standing in solidarity um says you're not gonna take these rights from us that are guaranteed to us under our Constitution."
While Democratic lawmakers are standing in solidarity, some GOP leaders are pushing back. The Montana House Republicans posted to social media on Thursday that they "stand with President Trump in enforcing our immigration laws, securing the border, and ending illegal immigration."
