Durbin Reiterates Senate Democrats’ Demands To Rein In ICE As Republicans Stall Negotiations Ahead Of Friday’s DHS Funding Deadline

Durbin Reiterates Senate Democrats' Demands To Rein In ICE As Republicans Stall Negotiations Ahead Of Friday's DHS Funding Deadline

Durbin: "New reporting from CBS News shows that less than 14 percent of nearly 400,000 immigrants arrested by ICE in 2025 had charges or convictions for violent criminal offenses."

WASHINGTON - In a speech on the Senate floor, U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, urged his Republican colleagues to join Democrats to pass common sense reforms to rein in President Trump's immigration enforcement operations. The Senate passed a two-week stop gap funding measure for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which expires Friday, while Democrats negotiate with the White House and Republicans on legislative solutions to restore order and public safety.

Durbin said, "Republicans have had a week to work with Democrats to reform ICE and CBP and rein in the campaign of terror we've witnessed in Chicago, Minneapolis, and across the country. I'm sorry to say we've made little progress in reaching a deal. The Administration's campaign of terror has led to the detention of innocent people, serious injuries, and deaths-including those of Alex Pretti and Renee Good of Minnesota, both American citizens who were exercising their constitutional rights to observe and protest ICE enforcement. Americans are seeing this chaos play out in countless videos. And they're demanding change."

President Trump has justified these militarized immigration enforcement operations as targeting the "worst of the worst," however, DHS's own statistics tell a different story. New reporting from CBS News shows that less than 14 percent of nearly 400,000 immigrants arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in 2025 had charges or convictions for violent criminal offenses. Nearly 40 percent of all of those arrested by ICE in 2025 did not have any criminal record at all. Only two percent of those arrested by ICE over the past year had alleged gang affiliations.

Durbin continued, "These militarized immigration enforcement operations are not really designed to lock up the 'worst of the worst,' but designed to sow fear into our communities… And while 'Operation Metro Surge' in Minnesota has been in the national spotlight recently, the City of Chicago is no stranger to Trump's campaign of terror."

Durbin also spoke about Marimar Martinez, a witness at last week's bicameral spotlight forum that examined the lawlessness of the immigration enforcement policies. Ms. Martinez is a U.S. citizen and Chicagoan and was shot five times by a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agent during DHS' so-called "Operation Midway Blitz." Ms. Martinez was initially charged with assaulting the CBP agent who shot her, and DHS issued public statements with her photo alongside claims that she was a "domestic terrorist" armed with a semi-automatic weapon, although she was never charged with a weapon violation. The charges against Ms. Martinez were later dropped, but the CBP agent that shot her later bragged about his shooting abilities and is still employed by the agency. DHS has not recanted or removed its public misrepresentations regarding Ms. Martinez.

"The fact that Ms. Martinez is alive today after being shot five times is a miracle. And I told her as much… Ms. Martinez, a teaching assistant to little kids, spoke of the trauma she continues to carry with her. [She said] 'the physical scars will always be there in the mornings and evenings, when I get dressed and I stare at my body, now permanently disfigured by the five lead bullets.' She continued 'they will be there this summer when I head to the beach with my dogs and family. They will be there when I get down on the floor with my students.' That shooting will be with her the rest of her life… Does Ms. Martinez sound like 'the worst of the worst?' Does she sound like a murderer, a rapist, a terrorist, criminally insane [person that the President claimed to be targeting with these raids?] Of course not," Durbin continued.

Senate Democrats laid out their proposals to reform federal immigration enforcement agencies, including ICE and CBP. As part of those negotiations, Democrats are demanding the following common sense measures: first, they must stop roving patrols. Government agents cannot indiscriminately round up people without probable cause and federal agents cannot enter someone's home and disappear with them without a judicial warrant. Second, there needs to be accountability, including new use-of-force standards that allow local law enforcement to participate in investigating complaints of "excessive force" by immigration agents. Finally, Democrats are asking that body cameras be mandatory, and masks come off.

Durbin continued, "Democrats are united in our calls for these common sense reforms, and the American people will back us up. This week, we need the Republicans to work in good faith to get a deal done."

Durbin concluded, "In the meantime, I want to note something: Secretary Noem has not appeared once before the Senate Judiciary Committee in the last year… She says she's too busy… too busy to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee and explain the lethal mismanagement of her agency and the damage that's being done. She says now she may come in a few weeks… The Administration must end this aggressive immigration enforcement surge and mass deportation campaign. ICE and federal agents need to play by the same rules as professional police forces across America."

Video of Durbin's remarks on the Senate floor is available here.

Audio of Durbin's remarks on the Senate floor is available here.

Footage of Durbin's remarks on the Senate floor is available here for TV Stations.

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