Senators faced off with Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison during a fiery hearing Thursday that brought bitter divisions over the actions of federal immigration law enforcement officials in Minnesota to Capitol Hill.
Ellison defended his criticisms of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) during the hearing, while GOP witnesses went on the attack against Democrats in Minnesota.
The heads of three major federal immigration agencies also faced intense questioning from lawmakers over the Trump administration’s handling of enforcement in the state, as White House border czar Tom Homan announced the crackdown was coming to an end.
It all came against the backdrop of a likely shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Saturday, as Congress has not approved a funding bill.
Here are the key takeaways from Thursday’s hearing:….
Ellison brunt of GOP anger
Republicans went on the attack against Ellison, a former House member, during the Homeland Security hearing.
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) blamed him for the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, who were both shot and killed in separate incidents involving federal law enforcement in Minneapolis. Johnson said Ellison had encouraged people to oppose federal officials involved in the deportation crackdown….
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An even more fiery exchange took placed between the state attorney general and Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), who accused Ellison and his family of profiting from a major welfare fraud scheme in Minnesota. Hawley repeated claims that Ellison had prior knowledge of the operation and failed to intervene.
In a combative back-and-forth, Ellison and Hawley both called on one another to “resign.” The pair talked over one another, with the senator lobbing accusations at the attorney general.
“For the record, he’s lying, and that’s the truth,” Ellison said of Hawley’s claims. Earlier in the hearing, he argued that the DHS enforcement effort, which followed the fraud investigation, ultimately hurt that probe….
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Rand Paul, Democrats press immigration officials on tactics
The top Republican on the panel joined Democrats in questioning DHS officials about federal agents’ tactics and policies.
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) probed Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Commissioner Rodney Scott over the agency’s de-escalation policies, playing several video clip angles that showed a CBP agent fatally shooting Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care nurse, on a Minneapolis street.
Pretti was killed after he attempted to assist a woman who was pushed to the ground by federal agents. The CBP agent then shot Pretti multiple times, and he later died in the emergency room. …
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Democrats stress demands for reform ahead of DHS funding deadline
Democrats repeatedly emphasized the changes they want to see enacted within DHS, specifically in how officers operate and conduct themselves, amid the deadline to fund the agency.
Democrats have sought to rein in federal agents participating in the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown and put their demands for reform at the center of the DHS funding fight.
“We’re here today because Americans are outraged by the deliberate intimidation, trampling of civil rights and lawlessness from this administration that has left two Americans shot dead, two American citizens shot dead by masked federal agents,” Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) said.
Democratic leaders have said they will not support any appropriations bill that does not impose new limits on ICE and CBP officials, including a ban on agents wearing masks and a standardized use of force policy.
Republicans have cast many of the demands as “nonstarters,” voicing opposition to two items in particular: unmasking federal law enforcement officers and requiring them to obtain judicial warrants to enter private property.
Current ICE policy allows officers to use an administrative warrant signed by an immigration supervisor, rather than a judge, to enter homes and make immigration arrests.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) argued these warrants function as a “permission slip” to violate a person’s Fourth Amendment rights.
“It’s a green light from another ICE agent to go bash down a door, smash into a home, detain and arrest someone without a judge finding probable cause and without any sort of objective, independent finding,” Blumenthal said.
“No sir,” Lyons pushed back, saying the internal documents are based on “an executable, final order [of removal] issued by an immigration judge.”
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Noem absent, but frequently invoked
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem was not present for the hearings but that did not keep her out of the spotlight.
Noem’s absence was noted repeatedly as lawmakers pressed the witnesses to answer for her rhetoric about the situation in Minnesota and how Good’s and Pretti’s deadly confrontations with federal officers unfolded.
“I personally think that Secretary Noem should be here,” Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) said.
“You want the big job. You have the big accountability, and we should be seeing the secretary of Homeland Security coming in front of the American people and certainly the Oversight Committee when we have such existential issues about the deployment of federal force in our country going on, but you are here in her place,” she said.
Much of the bipartisan criticism levied toward Noem has focused on her rush to label both Good and Pretti as “domestic terrorists” in the immediate aftermath of their deaths, before an investigation was conducted and despite video evidence to the contrary.
Though Noem has attempted to walk back that initial characterization in Pretti’s case, saying she was using “the best information we had at the time,” it has done little to quell calls for her resignation or removal…..
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ICE Chief Concedes It Was Inappropriate For Noem, Miller To Call Good, Pretti ‘Domestic Terrorists’
Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons conceded that comments made by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and senior Trump advisor Stephen Miller calling Renee Good and Alex Pretti “domestic terrorists” after they were killed by ICE agents last month was premature and would “put a bias” on public opinion.
The somewhat convoluted admission came during questioning from Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) on the Senate’s homeland security committee Thursday.
Here’s the back and forth:
Hassan: “Were Renee Good and Alex Pretti domestic terrorists?”
Lyons: “Ma’am while that investigation is ongoing, to my knowledge, no.”
H: “In your testimony Tuesday you said you don’t want to comment on these ongoing investigations because you don’t want to ‘impede’ or ‘bias’ the investigation. Is that right?”
L: “Yes ma’am.”
H: “If you saying that today would impede or bias the investigation, then why wouldn’t it impede or bias the investigations for secretary Noem and Stephen Miller to say the same thing about the same people?”
L: “Any comments that are made … is gonna put a bias on the information.”
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