jackson prominent li what you're expecting today we're expecting i'll really suffer all things one is we want to let our communities know that voting is really important and that they need to get to know their candidates and then the other is that candidates need to know what the issues are that are of concern to people of color so anything from voter registration to immigration so we're really looking forward to that this question when you see the our our immigrants because it breaks up the families when when one gets the ported so we're trying to figure out how we can work with the federal government to ensure that that happens and there was a ruling recently by the whole lot of questions that we are really concerned about so the secretary of state that's their duty is to ensure that our communities begin to take a look at what is preventing them from voting right so is that an issue of access do we have ballot back boxes in our communities that we can easily drop our ballots on do we understand you know is  it translated are the pamphlets and the booklets translate it so that our communities can understand them so those are some of the questions that we want to bring attention to the secretary  didn't mean it didn't matter to me and so what we're doing now is really making sure that our communities our various communities our intersection of our communities understand that we are stronger in number we are more power for we are more de nam those who say we are not and so what we do today here and specifically what our candidates form as a neighbor our community to know that they hold the power and to encourage and urge the candidates to really be mindful as to why they are running for office and if they really uphold and really believe in the things that we believe as a community we might have different language barriers different cultural backgrounds and ethnicities yet when it comes down to the differences we celebrate them together and we had a what we're trying to do is realize trying to work to break down those barriers so we can do a better job of working together so if it is a language barrier that folks understand it's just that language barrier but our minds are right and that our hearts are insane and the re's more of us that are are like mine and this is in sync and we can move towards a common goal for america and what we need for our society what do you think about this weekend going to be out here today so we have a few candidates coming we have secretary of state we have some candidates from the forty third district coming i don't have any personal opinions of them personally i think that they're i read up on everybody who's running and i think that they've all have a good reason why they're running i just want to make sure that they be whole and really live and demonstrate exactly what they're saying why they want our boat we're not going to do is pay honor an homage to people who talk  we want somebody who lives that their actions demonstrate that that's what we want and so what we're going to make sure is that are those candidates really think about it really get their minds right around it on how they represent our communities and not just coming into communities of color really want young people to understand that there's a strategy in everything that we do and i understand right now we feel powerless and the best thing that we think we can do is to take to the streets yet we have brilliance we have an abundance of black lawyers black the judges we have prosecutors we have people who push paper you know paralegals we have everything what i'm saying is that if you don't a merger's self if you don't immerse yourself into it you will never know the bass knowledge of what's there and so what i want to encourage all of our young people do is not to be afraid to take that risk there are people like me like you that are resources there are communities that love you and will give the knowledge that you need so you won't be so it's imitating are so frightening yet you know that you can take over that you are the voice that you hold the power so whether you choose a bone or not which we really want you to vote but we want you to be immersed in the information and we want to give you that knowledge and so the way i look at it is that don't give a d of what people tell you fight that fight struggle struggle because you're not the only ones our families and our ancestors struggle for a reason the reason that you and i are standing here together two different parts of the diaspora yet still very much kind of connected as family is the fact that we're supposed to be here with you and i both in the rest of these young people we are royalty and we will walk as though as such and what people are trying to diminish is our royalty and i want young people to know that you are regal you're grand and they can not diminished  because you were innately or inherently and born into that were that regal and this is what i want to say i'm trying to get all my words together but long story short don't be afraid there's resources and there are people like me that we can do this together just a few things about yourself yes i'm an adam smith i'm the congressman who represents the ninth district or state of washington i represent a wide variety of ethnicities we have the most diverse district in america and we have a very large eritrean community populations so i am very focused on income inequality and creating good jobs when you think about the immigration situation right now i think it's terrible i think we need comprehensive immigration reform and i think the end documented population embarrassment both we need to work on affordable housing and then we need to work on specifically helping homeless people who have problems with addiction or problems with mental health and we need to build more housing need to make more housing available them and give them more assistance do you think about  really we need a much better relationship between the police and the citizen tree that is to adversarial right now there have been too many for afic shootings across the country the tragedy in dallas and mean what we need is community policing need the police to get out into our community and interact and build more positive relationships we are not where we need to be in this country where in seattle right now what's your view about use involvement  government the more young people involved the better i started working in politics when i was thirteen my father took me to district democratic meetings i started working on campaigns the more young people involved in politics the better off our system's going to be more involved the better anything i can do in my office let me know i'm happy to help i want more people involved in the political process minority district where most of the district are people of color it was created for the purpose of people of color finally having somebody to represent us in washington d c currently from the puget sound area there are no people of color in congress there has never been a person of color and to represent people of color in one hundred twenty seven years and so and there's no time more needed than now because that diversity that is the new nine district is the diversity that's under attack by hate groups under attack by terrorists under attack by certain members of the police force as we've seen recently in the in the national press and so i've been asked to run to ac defend our diverse communities are our new immigrants are new americans are people of color are l g b t community are disabled and so i've done that for ten years in this in the washington house of representative and now i'm ready to do it in the united states congress what do you think about them occasion situation around seattle and listen i think that the that the immigration laws have been held up by a very conservative right wing congress one of the things that president obama tried to do is to go around that opposition but the supreme court interfered with that and that's why we need to a leg more people who would defend the immigrant community and provide immigration laws that actually make sense it's not just for individuals it's for the whole country people who are from other countries that are here now many of them have fl terrorist countries from their home and are seeking refuge here they need to be protected and many others are born here to parents who may have come seeking prosperity that america offers to the rest of the world when we make that offer and invite people to come we need to treat them with respect and we do that by passing laws to protect them once they're here and so i intend to be a leader in passing more common sense happening are as i have been supporting black lives matter ever since trayvon martin was killed back in two thousand and fourteen i'm the only candidate for this seat that actually march and spoke at the trayvon martin march here and and i mean here in washington state as you know he had a relative here and now we see castiel now we see sterling being added to those names of people who have been brutally gunned down by police and my proposal is to start at the front end no member of any police force who is at a was ever been involved in hate groups such as k k k or klu klux klan should ever be allowed to be a member of a police force and i intend to take that fight to congress politics as early as possible there is on every graveside there is a birthday but such but you never know when you're when your death date is so you need to use all of the time and all of the talent that you have as early as possible to get involved in effect change because if if if you're not going to do it for your generation nobody else is and so i encourage people to get involved in our campaign and som i'm encouraging him to run their own campaign so they can be in public office i am practicing what i'm preaching i was first elected to the legislature at twenty nine years old i was a law student the only law student elected majority represents an advocate for the majority minority district is what you will hear what you will read it being described but this is a district that happens to have the highest unemployment rate in the him within washington state of those congressional districts ten percent unemployment compared to the national average which as we learned from the jobs report last month is now down to four point nine percent ten percent in the new month over forty one percent of african americans who live in the new nine are living in poverty not just under employed not just low wage and poverty and yet we have a situation that reverberate even from outside the district with the last name because steel and sterling that say to us that not much has changed in the last fifty years when we have police shooting at point blank range african americans and people of color so as a as a small business person i can tell you finding good people is a challenge to find people who are good at what they do we are constantly recruiting so i believe that it's an education this is an education issue we have colleges turning out far too many unemployed psychologists get good jobs then they can buy the nice houses they can live in the nice places they can drive the nice cars and i want everyone to have the absolute best shot and i believe that right now the federal government is a huge detriment to our economy the greatest economy in the world was created with freedom innovation inspiration and it's being choked to death by over regulation heavy taxation and i want to look at incentivizing people to do their own businesses it's tough to do a small business i can tell you that but it's hugely rewarding because it's yours you own it and that's it that's the american dream to be able to have your own business to be able to hire people and to to grow and to contribute to the community and so i see that as our our solution thank you i'm the only candidate in this race that has passed legislation under my name in every legislative arena where odds are and one of the pieces of legislation that directly helps economic development and income equality is the link deposit lending program that i led the way in terms of creating that legislation with fifty million dollars for women and minority owned business now it's been expanded disabled on businesses they're able to get financing to start their own businesses up to a million dollars at a time and when you when you take into account the other benefit to reduce interest rates it's not only financing but it's  not expensive financing that sun has grown now two hundred ninety million dollars in this state and as it spread all across the country and duplication it's now over one point three billion dollars of money that's available so you don't even have to live just here or have your business here in washington state i think that's number one without capital it's really tough to own businesses and create jobs when it comes to education a number of your ready know from reading reading my literature i'm an early bernie sanders supporter so i endorse debt free to wish and free college so every student regardless of their economic means and income will have a chance for college education because college education is really the common  education in general is the common denominator that athlete enables people to lift themselves up economically and not rely on somebody else i think that we want to always live by the rule of law and we want to do the due process and protecting families is my number one priority protecting especially  our children for the last thirty five years i've been a youth pastor i've worked with homeless folks and been homeless worked with rescue missions and i can tell you there's nothing more important than protecting our families and i think that protecting the due process that you don't just round up people in the boredom they go through the process of helping people to become americans americans america is this great melting to those who are on the enemies of diversity who want to see deportation can certainly go back to the fifth circuit in texas or any of the states in the circuit and try to and bourse now that rule but it is highly unlikely what needs to happen instead of the executive orders there needs to be legislation that puts it into law that makes it final so that we can't have a supreme court decision to strike down a  an executive order on the grounds that the president has allowed the congress to act that was the real issue it wasn't that they were ruling against immigration or for deportation they were basically saying that the rule of law requires that the president allow congress to take this action so as candidates for congress we need to lead as soon as we're elected and take action and put it into law to protect citizens here whether they were born here or not important to get to that and one of the things that i do on a regular basis pretty much every month i held community town hall meetings similar to this one except usually tons more people and a bigger possibility because we had between eighty and one hundred thousand people in each legislative district and so before i went to went to you i asked what did they want me to do when i came back for a wasn't at the end of session it was mid session to let them know what progress had been made and then a third time bringing everybody together at the end of the legislative session to let them know where we have achieved success and what we still had to do to move their agenda poor as it was stated in the introduction i've always believed that i'm not the boss you are i work for you so i take your agenda and move it forward and then bring increase the success rate of people getting into colleges and universities and inspire much of the construction that you see going on here now in terms of whole housing and other businesses and infrastructure programs it's because all of those ideas came from what was before we went to a libya marginalise we and i were one here i don't know if you still here but it's it's our job to take the marginalized and make them the margin of victory and that's what i did and that's what i intend to do in congress