Congresswoman Jayapal won't celebrate with President-elect Trump but will talk

Pramilla Jayapal is in her Seattle-area district this week leading the fight on issues dear to her -- health care and immigration.

“If you think about it we are going back to a place where they have no security for their future whether it's themselves or their parents,” she said in an interview.

That's part of the reason Jayapal became one of the first in Congress to announce she will not attend Donald Trump's inauguration.

In her Seattle interview, she told us she'll boycott the ceremony, but not the new president.

“If he wants to talk to me about deporting people, I'll still go talk to him and I'll tell him exactly what I think about of that. That's my role, not to stay away but to engage.

Jayapal has been engaged for years as the founder of an anti-discrimination group that came to focus on immigration rights

Now she's been sworn in as the first Indian-American woman to be elected to Congress.

Her mother was there to celebrate her first day in office.

“She asked me to promise her is that I would be safe,” Jayapal said as tears came to her eyes. “That was her one request, but I just promised her that I was going to do the best I could ever do.

That started with challenging the Electoral College vote in Congress, or at least trying to. But Vice President Biden quickly gaveled her objections out of order.

“You know I understand he was just keeping order and I had just had a lovely conversation him the night before. I wish he would have let me finish this one but I get it,” Jayapal said with a smile.

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