Today, I voted NO on the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding bill because the White House and MAGA Republicans refuse to work with us to rein in ICE.
Republicans had two weeks to work with us to overhaul ICE. Yet, they’ve chosen to shut down DHS instead.
Here’s the thing: we have clear video evidence! The American people have seen with their own eyes that ICE is beyond out of control. They’re undermining our most basic human rights and killing people in cold blood.
We need a top-to-bottom restructuring to stop their terror in our communities.
Here’s how we got here:
Democrats sent the White House a list of ten demands.
These are very basic things. Require ICE to have signed judicial warrants to enter private property and require agents to wear body cams. Require agents to show clear identification and quit hiding behind masks. Bar ICE from making arrests near hospitals, polling stations, schools, and places of worship.
The bottom line: these reforms are common sense. Most are things that local law enforcement agencies around the country already do.
It’s the bare minimum.
This week, we met with immigration lawyers, advocates, and local law enforcement from across Colorado to hear their thoughts on how we can best address the administration’s masked agents wreaking havoc across our state.
Immigration lawyers and advocates told us horrifying stories about what they and their clients have witnessed on the ground. Folks are being pulled over at gunpoint, harassed, profiled, and spied on by ICE. No one in our communities feels safe.
We also heard from a district attorney about a case where ICE deported an individual who was on trial for sexually assaulting a child before a conviction could be reached. The perpetrator escaped accountability and is now walking free.
ICE’s abuses continue to get more and more egregious.
That’s why I refuse to fund ICE until Republicans work with us to rein in their lawlessness.
It’s clear we need to completely overhaul the agency and call out ICE’s reckless abuses at every opportunity. The president can’t keep asking us to ignore what we’ve seen with our own eyes.
But, that’s exactly what the White House wants us to do.
We won’t accept it.