House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries took aim at ICE officials on Tuesday, saying during a press briefing that the identities of those law enforcement agents should be made public.
He was asked a question during that briefing about statements he made that he wanted the identities made public of those ICE agents who were involved in an altercation with New Jersey Rep. LaMonica McIver. McIver was arrested and is alleged to have pushed and hit ICE agents outside Newark immigration detention facility Delaney Hall. Footage of that incident was caught on body cam by the ICE agents on the scene.
"Every single ICE agent who is engaged in this aggressive overreach, and are trying to hide their identities from the American people, will be unsuccessful in doing that. This is America, this is not the Soviet Union, we are not behind the Iron Curtain, this is not the 1930s," Jeffries said.
"And every single one of them, no matter what it takes, no matter how long it takes, will be identified. That in fact is the law. And we're gonna make sure that the American people have the transparency necessary to hold people accountable when there are folks who cross the line here in America. That's what's gonna happen," he continued.
"And as I mentioned earlier, I spoke to Congressman Nadler about this, our first priorities are always gonna be making sure that the person who is on the front line is in the best possible place to move forward," Jeffries said. That is in the case with LaMonica McIver and it is also the case with Congressman Nadler's brave, young, patriotic staffer."
Jeffries was further asked if he also wanted to make public the identities of those involved in the arrest of a staffer in New York Congressman Jerry Nadler's Manhattan office. Agents came to that office to find alleged rioters who they said were being harbored in the office. "We have the right to check. You are harboring rioters in the office," an agent said, caught on video. During the incident, a staffer was placed in handcuffs.
"And we've got to address those issues first," Jeffries said. "That's the human thing to do. While simultaneously, of course, preparing to deal with the broader policy implications which I mentioned are already underway."
ICE agents have faced backlash when undertaking enforcement actions. In Massachusetts, a city councilor in Worcester intervened in the arrest of a Brazilian woman with a criminal record. In Tennessee, a state senator posted video of herself bragging about getting in the way of ICE officers.
A San Diego ICE enforcement action at a workplace was branded as "state-sponsored terrorism" by local elected officials. This conflict is in addition to that faced by law enforcers by those whom they are trying to arrest.
