Congressman Cohen Says ICE is “Totally Out of Control”

WASHINGTON - Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-9), a senior member of the Judiciary Committee, today explained why local law enforcement agencies decline to cooperate with an "out of control" Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency at a markup of legislation aimed at forcing state and local governments to enforce federal immigration law.

In his remarks at the markup, Congressman Cohen said in part:

"There are reasons why cities don't want to cooperate with ICE. ICE has become recognized as the worst agency in this government. They have no respect for citizens. They do not act like law enforcement. Law enforcement acts with regard to people and to serve them. They wear badges. They have their names on their uniforms. They don't have masks on. They don't just come up and break your window and pull you out. And they don't shoot you in the face or shoot you in the back ten times when you've done nothing wrong, certainly nothing violent. They did nothing wrong - Ms. Good and Mr. Pretti - nothing that a law enforcement officer would kill them for because they can only use deadly force under certain circumstances

"ICE has gotten totally out of control and this committee needs to do something about it…It's not really law enforcement; it's a paramilitary group…We have a paramilitary group operating in our streets in America, taking peoples' rights away and killing them without oversight, and absolutely it's Ms. Noem's fault.

"She needs to be impeached if she doesn't resign…She's a discredit to this government and to her president."

In his remarks, Congressman Cohen discussed the human toll of these policies, including the arrest and detentionof an Afghan family of four in Memphis.

See Congressman Cohen's entire remarks here.

# # #