U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin, who serves as Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and is a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, addressed the Senate to urge Republicans to support reforms on immigration enforcement. The speech followed the Senate’s recent passage of five bipartisan government funding bills and a two-week stopgap measure for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), as negotiations continue over broader legislative solutions.
Durbin began by referencing the deaths of Alex Pretti and Renee Good in Minneapolis, attributing their killings to federal immigration agents.
“Renee Good and Alex Pretti should still be with us today… the President said he is going after the ‘worst of the worst’ and instead, two people in Minneapolis lost their lives. Were they the ‘worst of the worst?’ Renee Good, a mother of three, and Alex Pretti, a nurse at the VA hospital in Minneapolis? [They were both] American citizens. Neither one of them fit the categories the President railed against during his rallies,” said Durbin.
He continued: “Instead, these two innocent people were taken from their families and their communities far too soon, in instances of senseless violence at the hands of the United States government. Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement operations have not restored so-called ‘law-and-order’ that he promised and have not targeted ‘the worst of the worst’—they’ve done the exact opposite. In every place DHS’s roving squads have descended—whether Chicago, Minneapolis, or any other city—they have brought chaos, disorder, and fear. These operations have created a public safety crisis, with families terrified to leave their homes—I’ve seen it firsthand in Chicago… Parents and school administrators are struggling to explain ICE attacks to children, and Americans [are] desperately trying to protect their neighbors.”
Durbin argued that while Americans support removing violent criminals through orderly immigration enforcement, methods matter. He warned that indiscriminate actions erode civil liberties: “The American people support orderly immigration enforcement that removes violent criminals from our streets. But how we do it matters. The indiscriminate and violent round-up of American citizens, legal residents, and people with no criminal record erodes civil liberties and threatens the rule of law. The American people have seen this play out with their own eyes, and they’ve had enough.”
Senate Democrats recently outlined proposals aimed at reforming agencies such as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Their demands include requiring federal agents to remove masks, activate body cameras, wear clear identification badges; ending roving patrols; stopping racial profiling; requiring judicial warrants signed by neutral judges for entry into private property; prohibiting excessive force against peaceful protestors; and increasing accountability for ICE and Border Patrol squads.
“A uniform code of conduct will rein in aggressive and excessive immigration enforcement, bring about accountability, and hopefully begin the long process of restoring trust. And when immigration agents fail to follow that code of conduct, the Department of Homeland Security must coordinate with state and local officials to conduct a fair and independent investigation,” Durbin continued.
He also criticized Secretary Noem from DHS for not appearing before Congress: “As these negotiations continue to play out, I will continue to do my part to hold this Administration accountable. After I asked Secretary Noem of the Department of Homeland Security to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee all last year, she refused. Now she says she just might be available in four weeks… She has a lot of explaining to do [and] we should hold her to account for it—both Democrats and Republicans.”
Durbin noted his office will keep documenting cases involving alleged excessive force by immigration agents in Illinois during “Operation Midway Blitz.” He cited 18 U.S.C § 242 regarding potential criminal liability for officials violating constitutional rights under color of law.
“One day, the Trump presidency will end. The statute of limitations for these crimes, however, will extend beyond that date,” Durbin concluded,“The Department of Justice—free from its weaponized quest of retribution against Trump’s perceived enemies—will have all the information it needs to pursue criminal charges against government officials who are actually violating people’s rights. In the meantime,my colleagues and I will continue to shine a light on these abuses,u pholdthe tenets o f basic human decency,and defend theruleof law.And I urge my Republican colleagues tos wiftly agree t othese Democratic reforms [to t he] DHS funding [bill] so that we may actually put a check on this national terror campaign.”
Video footage as well as audio recordings from Durbin's remarks are available online.
