Rep. Suhas Subramanyam (D-Va.) said Sunday that Congress should rein in the authority of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the wake of an officer from the agency fatally shooting a 37-year-old woman in Minneapolis.
“The real question now is can we find enough Republicans to work with us Democrats, to put a check on the military authority of ICE at this point,” Subramanyam told host Chris Stirewalt on NewsNation’s “The Hill Sunday.”
In the aftermath of Wednesday’s fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Macklin Good by ICE officer Jonathan Ross, Democrats on Capitol Hill and nationwide have called for limits on President Trump’s sweeping immigration crackdown.
Subramanyam noted Sunday that the GOP-backed tax and budget law enacted over the summer vastly boosted ICE’s budget. The legislation roughly tripled the agency’s annual budget for enforcement and deportations to $29.9 billion, according to the American Immigration Council.
“I’d like to see some more bipartisan action to try to make sure we have some checks on ICE and checks on the way they’re approaching communities today,” he added.
Since returning to office, Trump has sent ICE and other federal immigration enforcement entities to cities across the country. That includes Minneapolis, where the Department of Homeland Security surged the presence of ICE officers amid a federal probe into fraud within Minnesota’s social services programs.
But Democratic officials in Minnesota, including Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, have called on the administration to withdraw ICE personnel from the city in the wake of the shooting.
“We do not want you here,” Frey said of the agency at a Wednesday press conference. “Your stated reason for being in this city is to create some kind of safety, and you are doing exactly the opposite.”
