“De Facto Dictatorship”: Democrats Confront ICE, CBP Officials on Brutal Tactics
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House Democrats grilled the heads of ICE, CBP and USCIS at a hearing Tuesday over their role in the Trump administration’s brutal campaign to carry out mass deportations. “These three directors are responsible for what we are seeing around the country, whether it’s in detention, whether it’s in the streets or even in the courts,” says Illinois Congressmember Delia Ramirez, who is calling for her fellow Democrats to suspend funding for the Department of Homeland Security unless Republicans agree to their demands to rein in federal immigration agents. We play excerpts from Ramirez and other representatives’ remarks about the killings of U.S. citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, the deaths of immigrants in ICE custody and the fear and terror experienced by civilians confronted daily by masked federal agents. “This is more than authoritarianism. This is a de facto dictatorship,” says Texas Congressmember Al Green, who also spoke at the hearing.

“AMY GOODMAN: What do you make of…the acting ICE Director Todd Lyons declaring, “We’re only getting started”?

“REP. DELIA RAMIREZ: That was a warning. It was a warning to the American people that they’re not going to stop, that they believe that they have full impunity to continue to operate as thugs, as Klansmen, and continue to harm the people. They believe that it doesn’t matter if you’re an immigrant or you are an observer, that they have the full authority to keep harming people. And they think they’re going to get away with it, which is why, Amy, it was really important for me, at the end of my remarks, to remind them they will not always be in power. There will be a day of accountability…””