House Dem Caucus Chair: ICE Has ‘Too Much Money’, Those Calling for Abolition ‘Reflecting What They Are Hearing’, I Don’t Want to Abolish ICE

On Friday’s “CNN News Central,” House Democratic Caucus Chair Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-CA) said that he doesn’t support abolishing ICE, but the agency does have “too much money from our perspective” and House Democrats calling for the abolition of ICE “are reflecting what they are hearing back home in their communities.”

Co-host John Berman asked, “What do you think of these calls to abolish ICE?”

Aguilar said, “Well, what I think is that our members are reflecting what they are hearing back home in their communities. And people are scared, people are frightened, people are concerned that U.S. citizens are getting scooped up or that U.S. citizens could lose their lives protesting in disagreement with ICE. The Department of Homeland Security funds ICE. They receive an amazing amount of money, too much money from our perspective. They do good things. Homeland Security Investigations has been good in the past, the Coast Guard, TSA. There are things under Homeland Security that help the American public. But what ICE is doing right now, running around the streets picking up folks with no regard and hurting our communities, is [destabilizing] our economy, it’s [destabilizing] our communities, and it’s wrong.”

Berman then asked, “Do you think abolishing ICE is the right way to react?”

Aguilar answered, “No. I think we need to reform what ICE is doing. We are Congress. We control both the power of the purse and accountability. Donald Trump clearly does not want to hold ICE accountable. His own FBI will not investigate the murder of Renee Good. These are terrible tragedies that the American public sees. But what we need to do is reimagine how we spend resources within that agency and have robust accountability and oversight for their operations.”

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