Rep. Al Green (D-Texas 9) announced plans to file another set of articles of impeachment against President Trump and called on elected officials to stick to their beliefs, even when unpopular, during a Friday talk hosted by the Brown Initiative for Policy.
Green will leave his position in January after losing his primary election earlier this year. The 79-year-old staunch progressive and civil rights advocate has served in Congress since 2005.
The congressman attracted national attention when he was removed from Trump’s speech to a joint session of Congress in 2025 after interrupting Trump’s speech, waving his walking cane and declaring the president did not have a mandate to cut Medicaid, before he was escorted out of the House Chamber.
Green was also removed from Trump’s 2026 State of the Union address after he unfurled a handwritten sign reading “BLACK PEOPLE AREN’T APES!” in protest of a social media post by Trump depicting former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama as apes.
“Something just came over me,” Green recalled of the 2025 incident to the crowd of about 60 attendees at Friday’s event, jokingly swinging his cane in the air.
“I knew that there would be consequences. But I also know that there are just some things worth standing for. You just have to take a stand,” Green said.
Green is also known for repeatedly filing articles of impeachment against Trump during both of the president’s terms, a maneuver he has undertaken as recently as August. During Friday’s event, Green announced that he plans to file another set of impeachment articles before he leaves Congress.
In an interview after the event, Green declined to reveal what he planned to charge the president with, but alluded to his August filing in which he accused Trump of using federal immigration agents as “unaccountable paramilitary police forces.”
“The atrocities associated with (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and (U.S. Customs and Border Protection) are still continuing, and as a result, these atrocities will have to be addressed again,” Green told The Herald.
If the Trump administration sees more members of Congress support impeachment, “it may save some lives,” he added. “My hope is that this can become a deterrent.”
Earlier this year, an ICE agent shot and killed a man in Houston, just outside of Green’s Congressional district. The man, who did not have legal status, “was the kind of guy that we would want in this country — working, taking care of his family,” Green said at the event.
“We are simply enforcing the laws passed by Congress,” a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security — which houses ICE and CBP — wrote in a statement to The Herald. “Demonizing federal law enforcement for doing their jobs is reckless, dishonest and beneath the office he holds.”
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
At the event, Green said that members of Congress should hold to their belief systems regardless of outside pressure.
“The seat is important, but the job that we do to protect the American people is more important,” Green said. “I’m going to do that job, and it cost me my seat.”
Green lost his primary race to incumbent freshman Rep. Christian Menefee (D-TX 18) after Texas redrew its legislative districts in what was widely considered an attempt to increase the number of Republican seats. Menefee’s campaign was heavily funded by pro-cryptocurrency groups that have taken credit for his victory. Green — a member of the House Committee on Financial Services — has called for stronger regulations on the cryptocurrency industry.
Green told The Herald that the “billionaire class” had inserted itself into politics. “As a result, they are influencing elections,” he said. “They want their people to be in key positions.”
Green said he supports the Congressional seniority system, which elevates the longest-serving members of Congress to committee leadership roles. The system has been criticized by other progressives who claim that it hands greater power to older members of Congress.
But Green said that the system is beneficial for those without large financial backings.
“When seniority loses, then money will rule,” he told The Herald. “I’m very much afraid that we’re moving quickly in the direction of ‘money rules.’”
Jay Chavan ’30, who attended Friday’s event, said he viewed Green as “very defiant in his viewpoints.”
“That is something very uncommon in a lot of the representatives we have today,” Chavan added. “And it is something that I look up to him for.”
“On some issues, dear brothers and sisters,” Green said, “it is better to stand alone than not stand at all.”
James Libresco is a senior staff writer covering staff & student labor. He is a sophomore from Alexandria, Va. studying political science and contemplative studies. In his free time, he can be found playing basketball, meditating, or losing in Among Us.
