Sen. Tina Smith: I Can’t Vote to Fund ICE When their Actions Are ‘Illegal’

Friday on MS NOW’s “The Weeknight,” Sen. Tina Smith (D-MN) said she could not vote to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) when their actions are illegal.

Smith said, “We started off on what seemed to be maybe a good track, where it was announced that the, FBI was going to do this investigation jointly with state investigatory authorities. That’s the way we traditionally and typically do it in this state. And then we come to find out that the Trump administration is backing away from that. So the first thing I did was to call the FBI and say, you must reverse this decision. This is a terrible decision. It will undercut any credibility that you have. You don’t have any credibility because you’ve already basically told the world what you think happened here. How can we see this as an investigation without prejudice? And then just last night, Senator Klobuchar sent a letter to, the attorney general again, demanding that this be a joint investigation.”

Co-host Alicia Menendez said, “Your sense of whether or not there is appetite now among your colleagues to put some constraints on DHS?”

Smith said, “Well, I certainly have the appetite to do that. And Chris Murphy is a close friend and ally of mine in the Senate, and I agree, I don’t know how I could vote for a funding bill for ICE when they are behaving and so forth for the Department of Homeland Security, when so much of what they are doing, is illegal, is lawless. And in addition, it is so clear that we need reforms to ICE.”

Follow Pam Key on X @pamkeyNEN