Chairman Aguilar: Rather than making life more affordable for American families, Republicans decided to use their signature piece of legislation to give a blank check to Kristi Noem.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar and Vice Chair Ted Lieu held a press conference to demand the removal of Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and concrete reforms at ICE and Border Patrol in order to protect American communities. You can watch the full press conference here and read the transcript below.
CHAIRMAN AGUILAR: I want to thank Vice Chair Ted Lieu, as always, for joining me. For over a year, Donald Trump and Kristi Noem have been using Americans’ taxpayer dollars to terrorize law-abiding immigrants, kill U.S. citizens, detain children and endanger communities. What the American public have seen unfold in Minnesota with the murders of Alex Pretti and Renee Good has just been terrible, and it's been the last straw for too many Americans.
Let's not forget how we got here. Last year, House Republicans passed the Big Ugly Law to rip health care and food away from American families, and they used those cuts to pay for $200 billion to the Department of Homeland Security, including $75 billion to ICE. That's more than seven times the ICE annual budget.
Let that sink in for a moment. Rather than making life more affordable for American families, Republicans decided to use their signature piece of legislation to give a blank check to Kristi Noem. Now we've seen this out of control, bloated agency carry out some of the most horrific crimes in American history—from trampling on the Constitution to murdering U.S. citizens and violating civil and human rights. There is no question that this brutality must end, and House Democrats are united in that. We cannot act like this is business as usual. That's why Democrats are using every tool at our disposal to hold this administration accountable, and that starts with removing Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
Democrats are joining the American people in demanding that federal immigration agents are held to the same standards as our local police officers. Our caucus is united in demanding four commonsense reforms. Body cameras must be required by law and masks must come off. Judicial warrants are a requirement, not a suggestion. We must have independent investigations to prosecute agents responsible for carrying out abuses. And finally, there needs to be clear guidelines on use of force. Democrats won't rest until we enact real change in this lawless agency. Vice Chair Lieu.
VICE CHAIR LIEU: Thank you, Chairman Aguilar. Trump's tariffs continue to increase inflation. The recent Producer Price Index came in hot, hot, hot. Economists predicted a 0.2 percent rise; it was 0.5 percent, and what that means is tariffs are now causing businesses to pass on these increased costs to consumers. And what is Trump focused on? Closing the Kennedy Center. Apparently, he couldn't even get Kid Rock to perform there, and now we have this hallowed, amazing institution of the United States closed because Donald Trump royally screwed up when he vandalized it by putting his name on it.
I agree with Chairman Aguilar with everything he said about Trump's ICE and Border Patrol. Trump's ICE and Border Patrol interior operations are out of control. And not only did they kill two civilians last month, but you see continuing videos and stories of their abuses. We learned recently that ICE shackled a woman for 24 hours in a bathroom with three other men. The faucet didn't work, and when the man would go to the toilet, the woman would hide her face. We know that ICE also detained a five-year-old citizen, Liam, who then got sick because of the horrible conditions at the detention facility, and a federal judge ordered the release because ICE is just flat out violating the law. It turns out some of the folks that ICE is taking came here legally, through legal processes last year, and if the Trump administration doesn't like that, they've got to change the law. They can't just take people who came in here legally and then try to deport them, and that's why you have judges doing what they just did in this case and release five-year-old Liam. I also want to echo what Chairman Aguilar said about Kristi Noem. Under her leadership, the Department of Homeland Security has killed a number of Americans. She needs to resign, or she needs to be fired, and if not, impeachment proceedings need to proceed. And with that, I yield back.
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