On Thursday’s “Democracy Now!,” Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) stated that ICE and CBP are “out-of-control agencies. They don’t need to exist.”
Host Amy Goodman asked, “We have 30 seconds. You’ve said ICE and CBP must be fully dismantled. Are you willing to shut down the government over this?”
Jayapal answered, “I think that’s what’s going to happen tomorrow, because we have said that these are out-of-control agencies. They don’t need to exist. They didn’t exist, as you know, prior to 9/11. That’s when you and I first met, when I was doing that work. And these are creations that have been funded and funded and funded, with zero accountability, and now they’re being used as Trump’s deportation machine. So, yes, we need to dismantle those agencies completely. In the meantime, because we don’t have control of both chambers of government, we need to, at minimum, refuse to fund those agencies anymore, without massive reforms, and I don’t think we’re going to get them. So, yes, I think the government is probably going to shut down around DHS funding, because the American people, Democrat, Republican, and Independent, do not like what is happening today and will not stand for it, because this affects all of us. You erode the rights of some group of people, and you erode them for everybody.”
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