Republican and Democratic members of Nevada’s congressional delegation agree on one thing -- the enforcement tactics of federal immigration officers need to change.
Democrat U.S. Senator Jacky Rosen told Paul Boger of KNPR’s State of Nevada that she’s specifically upset with the aggressive approach of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Trump administration.
“I’ve been concerned all along with Trump’s cruel and chaotic cabinet,” Rosen said. “[These are] the people that he has put in charge, particularly of homeland security … people who are thriving in their cruelty, people who are, as leadership, letting their boys run wild, telling them that they are above the law, that they have no rules, putting quotas on people like they're in a way that just makes absolute no sense.”
Rosen and other Democratic senators have called for the impeachment of DHS Secretary Kristi Noem.
A 217-214 vote in the House of Representatives funded the federal government for two weeks to end a partial government shutdown. That $1 trillion approval included continued funding of DHS through February 13. Those two weeks allow Congress to debate and potentially negotiate new parameters of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations before approving further funding.
Rep. Mark Amodei, the lone Republican in the Nevada congressional delegation, says he agrees with the main objective of the DHS and ICE -- arresting and deporting undocumented residents with criminal records. But he also said that a pivot is needed from the aggressive culture associated with ICE operations, especially in Minnesota, where at least three people have died at the hands of or in custody of federal officers this year.
“This does not inspire confidence in the decisions made at the department level,” Amodei, who serves on the House Appropriations Committee and chairs the Homeland Security Subcommittee, told Nevada Newsmakers recently. “That's as nice as I can say.”
Meanwhile, protests across the country, including in Nevada, firmly oppose not only the tactics of federal agents, but leadership at the highest level.
“ICE agents are killing people in the street,” said Jordan Moore, who attended a protest in Las Vegas on January 25. “That's scary. That's legitimate. So it's more a war [about] not following the fascist regime that [President] Donald Trump is placing on everyone right now.”
Jacky Rosen, U.S. Senator
