During a Senate Judiciary Committee executive business meeting, Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), the committee’s Ranking Member, criticized the Trump Administration’s approach to immigration enforcement and resource allocation. Durbin argued that current tactics are ineffective and divert resources from addressing issues such as drug trafficking and gun violence. He also condemned President Donald Trump for pardoning individuals convicted of major drug offenses, including former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández.
Durbin referenced President Trump’s recent public admission at a Pennsylvania rally that he used derogatory language to describe Haiti and African nations during a 2018 Oval Office meeting. “The President is making no secret about his true motivation. I will never forget my 2018 meeting in the Oval Office when the President rejected a bipartisan immigration deal because he didn’t want any more immigrants from ‘s***hole countries.’ There were some questions [about whether] he actually said that for years. He not only said it, he bragged about it at a rally in Pennsylvania… Two Republican Senators claimed I was lying when I confirmed [the comments]. Now, President Trump isn’t hiding his true feelings… This is racism, plain and simple,” Durbin stated.
Addressing concerns over extrajudicial actions by the administration, Durbin said: “Consider President Trump’s extrajudicial killings of alleged drug traffickers… Since September, the Administration has carried out at least 22 attacks, killing at least 87 people. The President and Secretary Hegseth allege they are killing ‘narco-terrorists’—but the Administration refused to provide any evidence of an imminent threat justifying lethal force. If these are actually drug traffickers, law enforcement should stop the boats, confiscate and destroy the drugs, and prosecute the traffickers. The Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel has tried to provide legal cover for these summary executions in a deeply flawed legal opinion, which it refuses to make public to the American people.”
Durbin also noted that despite promises to target violent criminals, immigration enforcement under Trump disproportionately affected non-criminal immigrants: “Meanwhile, President Trump is targeting communities that didn’t vote for him, like Chicago. Instead of arresting dangerous murderers, rapists, and terrorists, as promised, the Trump Administration is rounding up tens of thousands of immigrants with no criminal history. In Illinois, a mere two and a half percent of immigrants arrested by ICE between September 8 and October 15 had been convicted of a violent crime. Sixty-six percent of the people detained and deported had no criminal history whatsoever.”
Durbin thanked Chairman Chuck Grassley for committing to bring Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem before the committee but expressed frustration over her lack of response: “I want to thank Chairman Grassley for committing to bring Secretary Noem before the Committee before the end of the year. Unfortunately, Secretary Noem has stiff-armed the Committee, refusing to commit to a hearing date. Mr. Chairman, you have the power to issue a subpoena. It will be bipartisan. It is time for Secretary Noem to end her galivanting across this country and come before this Committee and be held accountable by the American people.”
In addition to his remarks on immigration policy and administration conduct, Durbin spoke against Darin Smith’s nomination as U.S. Attorney for Wyoming due to Smith's lack of relevant experience: “Seemingly, Mr. Smith’s only qualification is his loyalty to right-wing MAGA orthodoxy. He was on the Capitol grounds on January 6... Mr. Smith baselessly claimed that the hundreds of Capitol Police officers who risked their lives that day were guilty of ‘massive incompetence.’”
Durbin continued: “Without evidence, he claimed that rioters who breached the Capitol were victims of entrapment... Mr. Smith also falsely claimed that FBI agents who interviewed him regarding his presence at the Capitol were sent by former Representative Liz Cheney and ‘her goons’ after he demanded that she be censured by the Wyoming Republican Party.”
He further questioned Smith's judgment: “I am also troubled by Mr. Smith’s stunning lack of judgment... He attacked Republican Senators for finding credible sexual assault allegations made by multiple women against Alabama Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore and claimed—again without evidence—that allegations were ‘probably false.’”
Durbin concluded with an appeal: “I urge my colleagues that there must be some standard of qualification... To give this kind of power to an individual that has no background... there’s no excuse—please vote no.”
