Jeff Van Drew Calls Out Dan Goldman For Attacking ICE

Forbes Breaking News

At a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Tuesday, Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-NJ) slammed Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) over his criticism of ICE agents.

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00:00remarks, but before we get into them, so much has been said on the other side. I just want to address

00:04some of that. First of all, I want to actually, first of all, I want to say, Mr. Moskowitz,

00:10you really do have talent. You really do have potential as a full-time stand-up comic, for

00:17real. You're good. You're good. It's fun. It really is enjoyable. I think you got some of

00:23your own material, too, and you embellish a little bit, but it's still fun. Secondly, on a serious

00:28note, earlier in the meeting, we were discussing the ranking member for the Committee of the

00:34Whole something about deporting babies and U.S. citizens and ICE and detaining criminals. Let's

00:40be clear. First of all, that's not your issue. It's not why you're here. I'm sorry we had to

00:46digress to that. This is not a reconciliation meeting. I really do want to talk about the

00:52Bureau of Prisons and how we can make it better, and I really started the meeting out by saying

00:56I was extending my hand to see we're going to disagree on some stuff, but let's see if we can

01:02work together to make it better because what those folks are going through isn't good. We can do

01:07better. Quite frankly, it's been going on for years on both sides of the aisle, so let's let anybody be

01:13holier than thou in this, okay? And we're not deporting babies, by the way. I have to bring it up because

01:18it's sad. And we're not deporting, and I know somebody's going to disagree with me on the other side,

01:22probably the ranking member, and that's fine, U.S. citizens. There were a lot of folks that

01:28shouldn't have been in the United States of America that were committing crimes and doing bad things

01:33that nobody appreciated, obviously, that committed murders, disfigured people, raped people, hurt

01:40people. Some of them were on the terror watch list. We're not speaking about immigrants. We love

01:46immigrants, but we don't like those people. And yes, the border is much, much better now than it

01:52was. And yes, sometimes we might need some help from the Bureau of Prisons, but ultimately it makes

01:58it a lot better for them to not having lots of bad folks come into the United States. I just want to

02:04again, you know, focus on associating myself with the remarks of Mr. Biggs. We really want to try to do

02:11something together here. It's my goal, and I know it's hard, and I know it's highly partisan, but I

02:16think there are some areas we're not going to agree on everything. We know it. We have divergent ideas

02:21for the future of the United States, but there may be a few points where we can come together to try to

02:28make it better, and that's what I hope for, and that's what I hope we would do. Finally, Mr. Goldman

02:34made a remark, too, about—I think I heard it right, and if I didn't, I apologize, but I believe I did—about

02:41jackbooted Gestapo agents as far as ICE. The men and women who work for ICE are oh so similar to

02:49people that work for corrections. They're just doing their job. They want a safe America. It's a hard

02:56job. It's a brutal job. It's not easy. They've been understaffed, abused, and mistreated for years. I

03:02don't like it in corrections. I don't like it in ICE. We shouldn't do it to anybody. So, no, they're not

03:09Gestapo agents, and that's abusive and inappropriate to refer to them so much, and I do call up Mr. Goldman

03:16for doing that. I wish you was here. Finally, real quickly, because I used up a lot of my time, but

03:23give me a brief answer. Mr. Wild, what structural or policy reforms would give you and your teams the

03:31stability and the access to really serve incarcerated individuals? The work you do, I like. It was

03:37referenced before by Mr. Cohn. When you believe in something and you believe you can get better,

03:41I've been around corrections a lot, and some of the most successful work that I have seen done

03:46is faith-based, whatever the faith is, just a faith that there's something greater and bigger

03:52and better for all of us, quite frankly. We all need that, including those of us who sit up here.

03:57But tell me, how can we make it better?

03:59First of all, we would ask for the full implementation of the attendance of the First

04:04Step Act. Prison fellowship is situated to be able to provide these services to those who live in

04:12prison, those who work in prison, family members, and to create better neighbors inside and outside.

04:18We believe that we have something really important and valuable to be able to offer to this conversation,

04:24and we're ready to do that. And so with the First Step Act, we would encourage the inclusion of other

04:31faith-based organizations. I hope that this committee in some way can help. That's something I believe,

04:36I'm hopeful, that across party lines that we can agree on, that there's a place for God to help

04:42people rehabilitate, regardless of what D or R is next to our name. Mr. Potter, would you agree,

04:52and I think this is what I got from your testimony, and then I'll be done, but I want to just summarize it,

04:56and you can say yes or no, that we don't actually listen to the correctional officers enough.

05:01We always do this, and everything that government does, we don't listen to the people who are most directly affected.

05:07Do you believe within the current budget we actually could make it a lot better?

05:11And finally, recidivism, recidivism, that's a hard word for me.

05:16Do you agree that the quality of the facility actually affects that? I know it's three questions

05:23real briefly. Yes, I do believe. Sorry, I'm looking at you. Yes, go ahead. No, you're correct. You're correct.

05:29Okay, yes, I do believe that listening to the men and women that do the work is extremely important,

05:35and they're the second largest stakeholder in the system. So any reform that's going to happen

05:43is going to affect them as well. Thank you, Mr. Potter. I yield back. With that, I will recognize

05:49the gentlelady from the...

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