On Tuesday’s broadcast of Bloomberg’s “Balance of Power,” Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) stated that he won’t vote for any money for DHS without changes, but, even with that “those ICE and CBP operations may resume, and they may actually come back to places like Chicago” for operations.
Krishnamoorthi said, “I’m not going to vote to send a single dollar to fund ICE or DHS or CBP right now, unless and until some commonsense changes are made immediately.”
Co-host Kailey Leinz then asked, “Well, so let’s walk through some of those commonsense changes that you and your leadership are seeking, Congressman. We know masks [have] been a sticking point. Judicial warrants [seem] to be something that Republicans are not willing to budge on either. In the absence of compromise on those issues, how do we get out of this, if you aren’t willing to send another dollar to the Department of Homeland Security if those things don’t change?”
Krishnamoorthi answered, “Well, I think that they’re going to hear from the American people more and more about these particular issues, because, as you know, unfortunately, those ICE and CBP operations may resume, and they may actually come back to places like Chicago, which are already traumatized by what happened previously. I’ve got to tell you, like, the mask situation is just common sense. This is something that our local law enforcement has to abide by. They don’t wear masks, they wear ID, they wear body cams. They don’t do warrantless arrests. And there are third-party investigations of the use of force. And they’re not roving around town trying to stir up trouble, the same way that Greg Bovino of the CBP was when he was here in Chicago. And so, this is like stuff that I think the American people feel is reasonable. It’s just what local law enforcement would abide by, and same with CBP and ICE.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett