Leader Schumer Floor Remarks Demanding Commonsense Reforms To End The Violence And Rein In ICE

Washington, D.C. – Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) today spoke on the Senate floor demanding all ICE agents immediately leave Minnesota and urging Republicans to join Democrats to pass commonsense reforms to ICE, including ending roving patrols and ensuring ICE agents remove their masks and turn on their cameras. Below are Senator Schumer’s remarks, which can also be viewed here:

The wounds of this nation will not heal until the terrible abuses of ICE are reined in.

The deaths of Renée Good and Alex Pretti have shocked people from one end of America to the other. The images of federal law enforcement gunning down and murdering US citizens in broad daylight is abominable.

Now, a few moments ago, Tom Homan announced that there will be a drawdown of 700 law enforcement officers in Minneapolis.

Let’s be very clear—Homan’s announcement is not close to enough. Seven hundred officers is going to be like a drop in the bucket to the people of Minneapolis, as over 2,000 agents—representing 70% of federal agents will still be on the streets brutalizing citizens, abusing citizens, abusing people. It’s not close to enough. They all have to leave now. That’s what the people of Minneapolis want and frankly that’s what the people of America want, having seen these images.

Seventy percent of the problem is still stationed in Minneapolis.

The chaos is going to continue. The danger that someone else gets killed, God forbid, continues.

All of ICE needs to leave Minnesota now. Residents don’t want them patrolling the streets like a military occupation. To say about three-quarters of Minneapolis will still be militarily occupied ain't close to good enough. It's not what the people of Minneapolis want, it's not what the American people want.

A full withdrawal of ICE is the only step, the only right step, for the safety of the citizens, and to allow Minneapolis to go function again. I’ve heard from our senators—people can’t go to schools, stores are closed, life is disrupted. And it’s disrupted as much by 2,000 agents as it is by 2,700 agents. Tom Homan is saying that a small group of agents will leave sometime down the line, and that’s meaningless.

And let’s be honest: Tom Homan is no hero. Removing Bovino and replacing him with Homan is switching from someone who is really, really, really bad to someone who is just really, really bad. That’s cold comfort to the people of Minneapolis.

Tom Homan was the architect and chief progenitor of many of the awful policies we see in effect right now that are hurting residents in Minneapolis and so many other places in America.

Today’s announcement only affirms that the real solution to ICE is never going to come from the executive branch policing itself. ICE’s abuse is not a problem that can be solved by executive fiat, and particularly when it comes from Donald Trump. We all know that tomorrow Donald Trump could put the 700 troops back in, acting like he didn’t even ask for them to be withdrawn. That’s how Trump operates. We need legislation, not executive fiat, subject to the whims of Donald Trump.

With Donald Trump it’s easy come, easy go, so we need legislation.

Most Americans, certainly I, stand firmly behind law enforcement. They have a tough job. They put themselves at risk every day to keep our communities safe. But what Americans don’t like is a subset of federal agents going off the rails and acting with zero restraint, zero accountability, and acting like a squad of roving thugs, goons.

So, Democrats have been clear about what Congress needs to do to end ICE’s violence and ensure public safety. ICE needs to end roving patrols, follow basic standards of accountability, and end the secret police who are masked and unidentified.

These are reasonable demands. Reasonable demands include masks coming off and cameras staying on. Reasonable demands include accountability, meaning someone looking over and saying what’s going on and stopping it, limiting it. Reasonable demands mean no roving patrols where these ICE agents just at whim pick up people, go into schools and churches. What we’re asking for is common sense and what the American people want.

And so, it is troubling–and perplexing–that some Republicans, led by Speaker Johnson, are right now siding with the secret police.

Speaker Johnson says having ICE agents take their masks off would somehow create further danger. Does he know anything about law enforcement? When he goes home to Louisiana, do the police officers or sheriffs wear masks? No. In every jurisdiction in America, police officers identify themselves—it’s a good way of dealing with the handful of abusive officers that exist. It’s a good way to make sure people know what’s happening. And Johnson says that taking masks off is a danger, a greater danger than people getting shot and beaten to a pulp on the streets by unidentified secret police.

Meanwhile the Senior Senator from Texas called the idea of no masks “ridiculous.” Senator Cornyn says taking masks off is ridiculous, but I’ll tell you what’s actually ridiculous: defending secret police after they murder, or maim, or brutalize people in our streets.

It’s ridiculous to look at all the images of chaos, to see what’s happening in Minneapolis and other cities, to see the tear gas and bodies lying lifeless, people hurt and beaten, thrown into dark prisons with no understanding of why they were picked up and put into these prisons. That’s the danger.

It’s ridiculous to think ICE—a force of untrained people—should get special treatment while every other law enforcement agency in the country is asked to follow reasonable basic codes of conduct.

When you get pulled over, the traffic cop doesn’t wear a mask.

People don’t see sheriffs and their deputies running around wearing masks.

Security guards, and state troopers, and even most FBI agents don’t walk around always wearing masks.

But all the sudden ICE agents, who have one of the worst records of law enforcement we have seen in America in decades, should be allowed to wear masks.

It’s truly ridiculous for Republicans to argue that this very delicate moment, when people fear excessive force from federal agents, that the right answer is to defend ICE’s ability to wear masks and enter homes with zero guardrails.

Now we have just a few days until DHS funding runs out. Democrats have been clear on what needs to happen. Our proposals are designed to ensure public safety and instill the kind of guardrails the vast majority of Americans support.

Republicans need to realize that the single worst thing they can do right now in the eyes of the nation is to double down on the status quo of ICE. They must negotiate. They must sit down and work out a real solution. The nation is tired of the chaos ICE is unleashing on our streets and does not want Republicans in the Senate and House to sit on their hands and allow it to continue.

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