Congressman Cohen Says Killing in Minneapolis was Unjustified

WASHINGTON - Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-9), a senior member of the Judiciary Committee, today addressed the shooting death of a 37-year-old U.S. citizen by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent Wednesday in Minneapolis at a committee markup.

In his remarks, Congressman Cohen said in part:

"What happened in Minneapolis strikes at the heart of this country - strikes freedom, the opportunity to participate in the demonstrations. I guess the way the car was parked was a demonstration of disapproval of what the government was doing…What happened to that woman was unjustified. I didn't say it was murder; that's for a jury to decide…

"For Kristi Noem to say it was domestic terrorism…is just false. The president said it was terrorism and that the officer had been hit by the car and was in the hospital. That was lying to the American public…

"What this committee needs to look at, Mr. Chairman, is how these people are trained, what qualifications they have…

"They're arresting people who are here in the country illegally, which is normally a civil offense and a misdemeanor. That's who they're stopping. Over 90 percent of their stops are people who don't have a criminal record whatsoever. The people of Minneapolis don't want that. The people of Memphis don't want that. The people throughout this country think it's wrong…Get the worst of the worst but don't tell us you're getting the worst of the worst when that's hardly anybody you're getting."

Congressman Cohen also expressed his concern that ICE employment recruitment advertising suggests it is seeking local law enforcement officers who feel they are "handcuffed" buy legal restrictions at their agencies with the inference that, as ICE agents, those regulations would be removed.

See Congressman Cohen's entire remarks here.

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