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Congressional leaders in Ohio are debating funding for immigration agents as Senate Democrats plan to block a spending package that would keep the government open. Policymakers say ICE won’t get any money until it complies with the law and can be held accountable.
Ohioans have been protesting against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for weeks after federal agents shot and killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis.
Mother and writer Renée Good (37) died on January 7, and ICU nurse Alex Pretti (37) died on January 24.
“ICE is completely out of control,” Ohio Democratic Rep. Shontel Brown of Cleveland said in an interview Monday. “I think it’s time for them to go.”
She added that the violence must end and officials must be held accountable.
“What we see is an agency that is out of control and destroying communities,” Brown said.
Last week, she voted against giving nearly $65 billion to the Department of Homeland Security and $10 billion to ICE. He urges his colleagues in the U.S. Senate to do the same.
“Until we get some accountability measures, until we get transparency, until they operate in a way that is actually lawful and consistent with the Constitution, I wouldn’t give them another red cent,” Brown said.
Even though it passed the United States House of Representatives, Democratic Leadership in the US Senate announced that he would block the bill, which will probably lead to a partial suspension of government activities.
Congress is moving toward a partial shutdown following the killing of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis
Brown wants Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem impeached, while other House Democrats blame her for the death.
Democratic U.S. Rep. Emilia Sykes of Akron said the Pretti shooting is a direct result of unsafe tactics ordered by President Trump and enabled by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
“Their approach is to escalate chaos, put innocent lives at risk and undermine public trust,” Sykes said. “Communities deserve protection, not lawlessness. There must be full accountability and an immediate end to these reckless federal operations.”
However, Vice President J.D. Vance claims that the “chaos” in Minneapolis is not caused by ICE, but by protesters and local law enforcement.
“Stop fighting immigration enforcement and accept that we need to have a border in this country,” Vance said Thursday. “It’s not that hard.”
Changing course for Vance, he acknowledged that some mistakes may have been made, but said they could be corrected if Minneapolis police got out of ICE’s way and helped them enforce federal law.
“The most important way we could reduce the errors that occur, at least in terms of immigration enforcement, is to have local jurisdictions cooperate with us… This is not what ICE is doing in Minneapolis; this is what the authorities in Minneapolis are doing to prevent ICE from doing their job,” Vance said.
Their teams said many members of Ohio’s congressional delegation were unavailable for comment Monday.
Republican U.S. Senator Jon Husted’s team from Ohio sent a statement he submitted social mediain which he tried to take the golden mean.
“The fatal shooting of Alex Pretti is tragic. My prayers are with his family and all those grieving,” Husted wrote. “Any incident involving the use of deadly force by law enforcement must be thoroughly and objectively investigated.”
The senator continued by saying that ICE plays an “important role” in national security.
“Law enforcement officers and first responders, who are called upon to make split-second decisions in dangerous situations, find themselves in difficult and often dangerous circumstances,” he said.
According to WSYX-TV, Husted has previously warned citizens “not to interfere with law enforcement activities.” He also praised ICE.
“I believe that all public officials have an obligation to lower the temperature around immigration enforcement, and no one should impede ongoing law enforcement efforts,” Husted wrote.
Republican U.S. Senator from Ohio, Bernie Moreno republished a lengthy statement on social media, which said: “By encouraging people to interfere with law enforcement, the left is causing people to die.”
“Senator Moreno will vote to keep the government open, unlike Senate Democrats who threaten to wreak havoc with another unnecessary shutdown if ICE is not defunded,” Moreno spokeswoman Reagan McCarthy said. “Chuck Schumer has lost control of his party to far-left lunatics who want to hold the country hostage to advance their radical agenda.”
U.S. Rep. Brown said immigration enforcement has a huge budget, noting it has already been allocated $75 billion previously.
We asked whether it would be worth a partial government shutdown to prevent ICE from getting more funding that it might get later anyway.
“The thing about this current situation, in terms of a potential shutdown, I would like to allude to what Donald Trump has been doing to essentially shut down the government bit by bit, piece by piece, tearing up departments like the Department of Education, ending programs at USAID. So he was essentially shutting down the government in his own way,” Brown responded.
“I think it’s important that as a check and balance in our government, we uphold our responsibility and obligation to hold this administration accountable, and if that means we won’t fund ICE, I will fully support that.”
US senators are negotiating. Once a compromise is reached, Brown would like to see tools added that can raise transparency, such as body cameras.
If the bill is not passed, not all services will be closed – food aid will still apply.
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This article was originally published on News5Cleveland.com and are published in the Ohio Capital Journal under a content sharing agreement. Unlike other OCJ articles, it is not available for free republication on other news outlets because it is owned by WEWS in Cleveland.
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