Department of Homeland Security
Floor Speech
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Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, now as for reining in ICE, right now Americans from all walks of life--left, right, and center--agree that the status quo with ICE cannot continue and Congress needs to make a change. What is happening in Minneapolis and other cities around the country is not law and order. It is thuggery--thuggery.
Here is what former border control head Greg Bovino said recently in a video that circulated online:
Arrest as many people [who] touch you as you want to. Those are general orders, all the way to the very top.
That is the rhetoric of police states. That is precisely the abuse that Congress needs to stop. That is why we were so intent on splitting off the Homeland Security bill from the rest of the funding bills, so we could focus on it, so we could rein it in--rein in ICE--and end the violence.
Republicans need to take a good look at what is happening around the country and realize, too, that it is time to rein in ICE's abuses. We should be going after ``the worst of the worst,'' as the administration says, instead of unleashing fear and chaos on everybody else.
What Democrats want is exceedingly reasonable. We need to end roving patrols. That means arrest warrants and ending racial profiling.
Second, we need real accountability, having ICE abide by the same rules as local police do, including independent investigations of ICE.
And, third, masks need to come off. Cameras need to stay on. Officers need visible ID. No secret police.
These changes are as common sense as it gets. There is nothing insane, as some Republicans think, asking Federal agents to respect the Fourth Amendment. It does not criminalize law enforcement to ask them to identify themselves and follow the same basic code as other law enforcement.
This idea that Johnson has that ICE people should be able to wear masks--police officers don't wear masks all across the country. And if anyone needs to be identified, it is these abusive thugs who are in the Border Patrol, who are in ICE.
If Republicans can't come to the table on these very sensible changes, then the violence we see happening around the country is going to continue.
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