Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) escalated her rhetoric against federal immigration enforcement on Thursday, declaring that Congress must cut off the funding for what she called rogue ICE officers.
Appearing on MSNBCs The Weeknight with co-host Symone Sanders, Jayapal used a House Judiciary Committee hearing to attack Republicans and immigration authorities rather than address border security failures that concern millions of Americans, according to Breitbart. Sanders prompted the exchange by asking, Help me understand what the Vice President was saying and doing today. Why are they asking us to ignore what we all saw?
Jayapal responded by branding her political opponents dishonest, saying, Well, because theyre liars. And I dont say this lightly. But we turned our Judiciary Committee hearing this morning into a referendum on this Minnesota case because we were not going to let Republicans just talk about some ridiculous bills when we have a U.S. citizen who was shot not once, not twice, three times, as she was turning the car away. She continued, And that video has been playing for everybody to see. And within hours you have Kristi Noem. You have Donald Trump. And now, apparently you have the vice president all lying to the American people about what we can see. And their problem is there is video.
Doubling down, Jayapal shifted from criticism to an explicit call to defund immigration enforcement, a long-standing demand of the progressive left. She added, And what we have to do is we have to cut off the funding for these rogue ICE officers who are kidnaping people, killing U.S. citizens, taking people off the streets. All of this has enormous money behind it. Congress does have the authority, and I think thats the next thing we have to do.
She further claimed, If theyre not going to follow the law, if theyre not going to not kill people on the streets, and if we cant even have an independent investigations without the President weighing in on social media and telling lies to the American people, this is a very dangerous time in our democracy.
Her remarks underscore a growing divide in Washington, where progressives seek to strip resources from ICE even as conservatives argue that enforcing immigration law and supporting officers on the ground is essential to public safety and the rule of law.
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