Washington, DC — As the GOP moves forward on a budget gifting more than $70 billion for Stephen Miller and mass deportation (on top of the more than $170 billion windfall from last year), accountability and reform measures to rein in ICE and CBP’s dangerous abuses and impunity are missing.
In sharp contrast, states are stepping up for public safety and common sense accountability measures. Of note in just the past week:
- In Illinois, a Chicago Tribune op-ed from Edwin Yohnka, “Public safety relies on accountability. That applies to federal agents, highlights how, “Chicago’s experience underscores the crucial importance of federal agent accountability.”
- In Minnesota, as the Star-Tribune reports, the State Senate passed legislation that would unmask immigration agents and provide new accountability for state residents to sue in the face of abuses similar to what the state experienced earlier this year.
- In New York, the state last week passed legislation that, among other public safety and accountability measures, includes a bar on ICE agents from wearing masks in the state.
According to Vanessa Cárdenas, Executive Director of America’s Voice:
“A number of states are trying to step up and fill the void that the do-nothing GOP Congress refuses to do: namely, create accountability and protect public safety. This administration and their congressional allies continue to fuel public distrust by giving ICE a blank check to spend and no restraints on armed agents in masks terrorizing entire communities. Congress will have to decide if their legacy will be delivering even more cruelty and more chaos across the country and harming Americans’ public safety and the economy. The better alternative would be to listen to the majority of Americans who are rejecting this administration’s mass deportation crusade and are calling for accountability and reform.”
