From PBS NewsHour.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said Tuesday that, while Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have a “tough, tough job right now,” that “if they go too far, we will hold them accountable.” Graham also blamed Democrats for the “mess" the Trump administration inherited on immigration.
“I want you to understand that these people have no interest in cleaning up this mess,” Graham said of Democrats during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.
Graham also said to “count me in” on proposals to reform ICE and make the Department of Homeland Security “more professional.”
“I’d like to make ICE more professional. I’d like to make sure if there was a bad shooting, it’s documented as such, and people pay a price,” he said.
But, Graham added, that he will “not apologize to anybody in this room” for trying to “clean up the mess” on immigration that he claimed was created by the Biden administration and Democrats.
“Only God knows how many people are here and what they’re up to, and we’re not going to stop,” he said. “We’re going to learn, but we’re not going to stop.”
Graham’s comments came during Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s first appearance before Congress since federal agents shot and killed two U.S. citizens in Minnesota in the midst of the Trump administration’s enhanced immigration enforcement operations in the Twin Cities.
The administration’s approach and the techniques employed by ICE and Customs and Border Protection agents sparked a fight in Congress over DHS funding and triggered an ongoing partial government shutdown.
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