Wesley Bell: ICE Agents 'Snatching People Off The Streets Is Unconstitutional'

Forbes Breaking News

At a House Oversight Committee hearing last week, Rep. Wesley Bell (D-MO) spoke about ICE under the Trump administration.

Transcript

00:00Chair now recognizes is Ms. Crockett here? Okay, then chair recognizes Mr. Bell from Missouri.

00:10Thank you Mr. Chair and our witnesses for being here today. I think that it's important for

00:18leaders to be honest and understand the nuance of issues and as my grandmother used to say all

00:27the easy problems have already been solved we're left with the tough ones and so it's important

00:32to our constituents that we're explaining the nuance in these issues and this hearing is yet

00:38another attempt at dismantling the system of power and the rule of law in America. The

00:44administration's threats to withhold funding and resources from states to coerce them to adhere to

00:51federal immigration law is unconstitutional period. The deployment of federal troops without

00:58authorization is unconstitutional period. Masked unidentified ICE agents snatching people off

01:06the streets is unconstitutional period and since the my colleague brought this up Governor Walz

01:13I'm a former prosecutor. Is it good precedence to have to allow masked men to show up and take

01:21people off the streets not even identifying themselves? No and it also puts law enforcement

01:26at risk. Absolutely and and there's this criminal element who might say hmm we can kidnap people,

01:32we can rob people, come with masks, identify ourselves as ICE and and someone may not know

01:40what they can do. Is that correct? Well if I'm not mistaken I thought yesterday I saw that that

01:44very thing happened um someone identified themselves as ICE and committed a crime. Yes it's it look we

01:50you wear the badge for a reason you wear the name for a reason and you're you're uh you make sure

01:56that you're coordinated with those other law enforcement agencies are there. It's a it's a dangerous

02:00situation for everyone. Absolutely and and um um and so governors quickly as it relates to criminal trends

02:07and in in your state are illegal immigrants more or less likely to commit serious violent crimes.

02:14It's clear that immigrants commit crime at a lower rate than the rest of our population. Studies

02:20suggest that illegal immigrants were about half as likely as U.S. citizens to commit an offense

02:26serious enough serious enough to result in incarceration and it seems to me that we're redirecting critical

02:33resources from communities to address immigration when statistically immigrants commit less serious

02:39crimes and this misalignment risks undermining uh community stability by deep prioritizing other

02:47high public safety concerns which you all have to deal with um and so I'd like to ask quickly too um

02:53uh Ms. Perryman are you familiar and and and I'm not sure if you are because this was out of

02:59the state house in Missouri are you familiar with the second amendment preservation act? Is that the act

03:05congressman where the state house in Missouri um sought to pass a law that it would not cooperate with

03:11federal law enforcement? Particularly with gun cases yes ma'am and so I'm a little I'm a little confused and

03:19and I'd love for my republican colleagues to clear this confusion up on one hand when it involves immigration

03:26they're saying that um we that states like yourself should do the job for them reallocate resources from those

03:36from places that you're doing tremendous work in to do the federal government's job but when it comes to

03:42gun violence Missouri passed a law forbidding police local police from cooperating with federal law enforcement

03:57and so I gotta ask in your respective communities is gun violence a problem

04:07Governor Hochul. Any incidents of violence is a problem for us but I'm proud that after investing

04:12nearly three billion dollars in law enforcement since I've been governor our crime rates are trending

04:18downward particularly violent crimes in a place like New York City had the lowest crime rate in May in

04:24history and I'm going to reclaim just because I'm short on time but gun violence is a concern would that

04:29be safe to say yes governors it is absolutely a concern and and so if if when local law enforcement

04:36and federal law enforcement work together to curb gun violence which protects all of us and all of our

04:42families I don't hear republicans complaining about the fact that local local law enforcement is not is

04:50literally barred until the supreme court overturned this barred from working with federal officials

04:56and and I think it's just about hypocrisy to suggest in this situation that you should be forced to

05:04take the the finite resources that you have to do the federal government's job that's my time I yield back.

05:12Chair recognizes Mr. Sessions from Texas. Mr. Chairman thank you very much uh to uh our friends Mr. Waltz welcome

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