KMA Land - Young Wants Explanation from Saldana

News Article

By Chuck Morris

A power struggle appears to continue on Capitol Hill between members of Congress and Sarah Saldana, the Director of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency or ICE.

The matter was discussed this week with Iowa 3rd District Congressman David Young during his weekly interview with KMA News. On April 14th, Saldana testified at an oversight hearing of her agency. During that hearing she stated that employees were empowered with prosecutorial discretion during their course of duty.

That statement has caused widespread negative ripple effects through membership of the House Appropriations committee, of which Young is a member. Young says he and other members of the Appropriations committee are not happy with Saldana and as a result they applied some pressure this past week to help open the lines of communication.

"And that kind of shocked us. So we sent a letter asking her to clarify. She never answered the letter. So in a hearing this week that funds Homeland Security and her department, I had an amendment that passed that withheld funds from her and her department until she came up to Capitol Hill, sat down with members of the committee and explained herself. And this is one of the tools that Congress has, this is the power of the purse. And when we have an opportunity to use it, we're going to use it. And I used it and I'm glad the amendment passed."

Young says he and others are going to insist she comes back to the Hill to answer some questions on the matter. He believes the basic tenant of law and order is at stake on this issue.

"We need to get her in front of the committee and have her answer some tough questions that not only I want to know about, but members of the committee as well and then folks all across the country want to know if this Administration is enforcing the law or are they making it up as they go along and just winging it. And this presents serious repercussions. Once you start ignoring and chipping away the rule of law in one area, it seems to have this effect where it's happening in other areas as well. So we need to stop that. We are a nation of laws and if that thread is unwound and comes apart, we have some real, real issues."

Source