Democratic California Rep. Eric Swalwell told “Situation Room” co-hosts Wolf Blitzer and Pamela Brown Tuesday that “protecting the homeland” did not involve deporting illegal immigrants.
Immigration enforcement operations became controversial following the fatal shootings of Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good in the Minneapolis area by agents from the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in January during confrontations between agents and so-called “rapid response networks” opposed to the Trump administration’s illegal immigration crackdown. Swalwell cited the deaths of Pretti and Good while saying that homeland security involved protecting “vulnerable immigrants.”
“I see protecting the homeland is also protecting the vulnerable immigrants who are running through the fields and factories where they work, or the woman who’s been dragged by her hair and thrown into an unmarked van, or the allies in Minnesota, you know, a nurse named Pretti and a mom named Good who were publicly executed,” Swalwell said.
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“And so if they can put in place reforms that end that, that stop the roving terror, Democrats are with them,” Swalwell continued. “But they also have plenty of funding from, you know, H.R. 1, the big brutal bill, to continue to operate. And so we’re asking for reforms that protect everyone in the community, not just the priorities of going after the most vulnerable.”
Border czar Tom Homan announced an end to Operation Metro Surge, a crackdown on illegal immigration, during a February 12 press conference, stating that over 12,000 illegal immigrants had been taken into custody.
Attacks on ICE agents have skyrocketed by 1,300%, according to a Jan. 8 release by the Department of Homeland Security, with vehicular assaults up 3,200% and death threats targeting agents rising by 8,000%.
Incidents of resistance to ICE enforcement operations have, on occasion, involved acts of violence. For example, agents have been fired upon in Illinois and California, while ICE personnel were reportedly attacked by individuals using vehicles in ten separate incidents between Jan. 4 and Jan. 10.
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