WASHINGTON — House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., called for immediate and dramatic changes at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in a press conference Thursday.
Jeffries’s comments come as the Senate works to avert a partial government shutdown. If a deal is not reached, the partial shutdown would start at 12:01a.m. on Saturday.
A minibus spending package containing six bills passed the House last week. Democrats are pushing for the bill funding the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, to be separated from the five other appropriations bills. Any changes senators make to the bill would need to go back to the House, which is currently out of session this week, for a vote.
Jeffries said an overhaul must be made at DHS before any appropriations bills regarding the department or ICE proceed.
“Dramatic changes need to occur as it relates to the way in which DHS agents generally, and ICE specifically, have been conducting themselves,” Jeffries said. “Taxpayer dollars should not be used to brutalize American citizens, to kill the American people or to violently target law-abiding immigrant families.”
House Democrats support the Senate passing the other bills in the minibus and the president signing them into law, Jeffries said.
“The failure to do so will simply be another indication that Republicans, once again, want to shut the government down in order to try to jam their extreme right-wing policies down the throats of the American people,” Jeffries said.
He added that if the Senate comes to a deal, House Democrats will need to evaluate it “in its totality.”
Jeffries also said there should be independent investigations when DHS officials commit crimes. State and local authorities should have the ability to conduct an independent investigation into crimes committed by DHS agents, he said.
Jeffries added that there should be a ban on the deportations of American citizens.
“We should have an explicit prohibition that DHS cannot detain or deport American citizens. Period. Full stop. The American people support it,” Jeffries said.
Jeffries also called for the firing of Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. He said that impeachment charges would follow if she were not fired.
“She needs to be put on ice permanently,” said Jeffries about Noem. “She’s got to go.”
In addition to Noem, Jeffries said that Homeland Security Advisor Stephen Miller should be removed. He added that Miller is a “malignant, unelected interloper” and was “the architect” of President Donald Trump’s “toxic immigration policies.”
“So when we evaluate the administration’s intentions, we’re not interested in a change in tone,” said Jeffries. “We’re interested in a change in behavior on the ground in American communities across the country, and as it relates to the people who are around Donald Trump.”
