Leader Schumer Floor Remarks On The Need To Rein In ICE And Urging Senate Republicans To Work With Democrats To Overhaul DHS Funding And Pass The Remaining Appropriations Bills

Washington, D.C. - Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) today spoke on the Senate floor condemning the Trump administration after the killing of Alex Pretti, criticizing ICE for their lawless and abusive conduct in American cities, and denouncing senior Trump officials for lying to the public in the aftermath. Leader Schumer demanded Leader Thune avert a shutdown by separating out DHS funding from the package of appropriations bills and allowing both sides to work to rein in ICE and overhaul DHS funding. Below are Senator Schumer's remarks, which can also be viewed here:

The Senate gavels into session with the conscience of this nation shaken to its core. Last Saturday, in the Eat Street district of Minneapolis, thirty-seven-year-old Alex Pretti was shot and killed by a Border Patrol agent after he was trying to help a woman thrown to the ground by federal officers. The many videos of Alex's death circulating online are grisly. They are horrifying. They appear to show Alex was shot ten times in less than five seconds. They show he held nothing more than a cellphone in his hand. If we trust our own eyes and ears, instead of Trump administration propaganda, it's pretty clear that Alex Pretti was murdered in broad daylight. The grief and anger his parents must feel right now must be staggering.

He was a decent young man-an intensive care nurse at the VA who dedicated his life to helping others. In fact, the morning after Alex Pretti was killed, I was at a doctor's appointment, and as it turned out my doctor's assistant was from Minneapolis-she knew Alex Pretti. She said he was just the kindest, gentlest soul you'd ever meet, not a bad bone in his body.

Alex Pretti did not deserve to die. Nor did Renée Good deserve to die two weeks ago, shot in her own car after dropping her kid off at school.

Enough is enough. And that's what America is saying from one end of this country to the other. What ICE and CBP are doing in Minneapolis-and other cities around the country-is not border security and certainly not "law and order." What ICE is doing is lawless disorder. What ICE is doing is state-sanctioned thuggery and it must be stopped. ICE must leave Minnesota today-not tomorrow, not next week, but today.

There are reports that the President is thinking about a reduction in force. A reduction isn't good enough. President Trump should act now to completely withdraw ICE and immediately turn down the temperature.

Americans support law enforcement. Americans support commonsense border security, but Americans do not support ICE terrorizing our communities.

Look at this picture. This is the kind of picture we're seeing more and more in American cities when ICE descends upon them. Federal agents shooting at and threatening protestors, black ICE SUVs roaming the streets and agents barging into homes without warrants, ICE encircling schools with riot gear and using kids as bait, and terrorizing our communities to the point that people are afraid to go to work, to church, shop for groceries.

This madness, this terror, must stop. The American people-Democrat, Republican, Independent-demand that the chaos and lawlessness of ICE be severely reined in.

This week, the Senate will step into the breach. In a few days, the Senate will consider a package of six funding bills sent to us recently by the House. And five of those bills are ready to go and should quickly pass. I'll say more about that in a moment.

But in the wake of ICE's abuses and the administration's recklessness, the Senate must not pass the DHS budget as currently written, and it must be reworked to rein in and overhaul ICE to ensure the public's safety.

The fix should come from Congress. The public can't trust the administration to do the right thing on its own-and Republicans and Democrats must work together to make that happen.

In the meantime, I will vote no on any legislation that funds ICE until it is reined in and overhauled, and Senate Democrats are overwhelmingly united on this issue. ICE should meet the same basic standards of accountability and due process that any law enforcement agency is asked to meet.

Now, separately, to finish the appropriations process, Leader Thune should split the funding bills and move forward with the five that already have broad support from both parties. If Leader Thune agrees to split the bills-just as Speaker Johnson split them in the House-and puts the five on the floor, I am confident they will sail, sail through this chamber, and we have funded 96% of the federal government.

But if Leader Thune insists on holding a vote on DHS legislation that he knows will not pass, then he will guarantee yet another unnecessary government shutdown this Friday, and the shutdown will be on Leader Thune's shoulders.

Leader Thune's choice is very simple: move the five bills that are ready and fund 96% of the government while we work to improve the DHS bill, the Homeland Security bill, or Thune can trigger a shutdown by forcing a vote on a bill everyone knows cannot pass at this moment - the combined bill that contains DHS.

The ball is in Leader Thune's court, he must quickly move to prevent a shutdown.

In the meantime, the heads of ICE, CBP, and USCIS should all testify before the Senate as soon as possible. We must not wait for hearings weeks from now. The American people demand truth and accountability right now. I'm glad that Republicans like Senator Paul have said likewise.

But we must also be candid: it is bone-chilling that in the aftermath of the killings in Minneapolis, some of the Trump administration's top officials have chosen to blatantly lie to the American people, like full-fledged authoritarians.

Stephen Miller raced to Twitter to call Alex Pretti a "would-be assassin" who "tried to murder federal law enforcement." If you watched the videos of the killing, you'd know this is an outlandish and shocking and totally dishonest, despicable thing to say. Meanwhile, Gregory Bovino, Donald Trump's top Border Patrol officer, also claimed without a shred of evidence that Pretti wanted to "do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement." And then of course there is Kristi Noem. Merely hours after Alex Pretti's death, Noem claimed-again, without so much as a morsel of evidence-that he had committed "an act of domestic terrorism" and wanted to "perpetuate violence."

You know what the reaction of these Trump officials seems to be when something terrible happens? To lie about it! Not to find the truth, not to express any sympathy to those who are dead, but to lie, lie, lie. It's despicable. It's so un-American. It's so different from than what we have seen in so many previous administrations. Lies! All of it is just blatant, sickening lies. And that is what these administration officials almost automatically turn to when there is difficulty and trouble.

Kristi Noem is a liar, she is vicious, and she's also incompetent. Donald Trump must fire her at once before another American is killed under her watch.

I will say again: It's bone-chilling that Donald Trump's goons will so eagerly-and almost lazily-lie right to the public's face. Right to the public's face.

Where is the accountability from Donald Trump? He has said nothing to call out the nastiness and dishonesty from Kristi Noem and Stephen Miller. It almost seems as if he prefers to have serial liars in his administration than honest people.

The kind of dishonesty we see from Kristi Noem and Stephen Miller is the bread-and-butter of authoritarian regimes. And it's dangerous, dangerous territory for our country.

When a government tells its people, "Ignore what your eyes see and forget what your ears hear, just listen to us instead," then for all practical purposes it's not trying to act like the government of a democracy. This is how dictatorships operate, and we are seeing the signs right in front of us here in America. The right answer, of course, is to meet lies with the truth.

Here in the Senate, the American people deserve to hear that truth-under oath-when Kristi Noem and other administration officials testify as soon as possible. And across America, the people must keep defending the truth. They should keep showing up-lawfully-and documenting abuses by ICE. They must continue to protest peacefully and nonviolently; to exercise their rights to free speech and free assembly; to protect their communities from the abuses of this thuggish government.

It may feel, to many, like the flame of democracy is flickering into extinction before our eyes-and that there's no way to fight back. That is wrong. The good people of Minneapolis-and of so many cities around this country-have shown the answer to authoritarianism: hold firm, tell the truth, look out for one another, and organize. And when the time comes, exercise your greatest power of all: go to the ballot box and vote, vote, and vote out the liars.

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