Massachusetts Democrat Rep. Ayanna Pressley told MS-NOW on Sunday morning that the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) is an “unconstitutional, unlawful, cruel, rogue, racist” agency that is “terrorizing communities” and “can not be reformed.”

REPORTER: But I also want to ask you about the impact of this, right? I think because we’ve seen so many people over the years be shot and killed on video, many people have become kind of numb to it. But it does do something to you, right? And I wonder what you think it does to the American people watching one of their own be killed in their car while protesting – seemingly is what it seems she was doing – by an agent of the state, someone who gets taxpayer dollars. REP. AYANNA PRESSLEY, DEMOCRAT OF MASSACHUSETTS: I appreciate you starting there very much, because the point is, the actions of ICE – they are unconstitutional, unlawful, they are cruel, they are rogue, they are racist, and they are terrorizing communities. They are sowing chaos and terrorizing communities. It has nothing to do with public safety, and there is a cumulative toll and impact here. You know, ICE’s murder of Renee Good in broad daylight is horrific and unacceptable. She was an unarmed citizen driving on a residential street, and she was shot in her car three times. So whatever Jedi mind tricks Republicans try to use on the American people – they try to talk us out of what our eyes see, what our bodies experience, and the trauma that our communities are experiencing throughout this country. And of course the horrific actions against Renee Good, who was a white woman, and a mother, and a poet, and a concerned community member – which is why she was out there protesting in the first place – her brutal murder. These things do not happen in isolation. This is why for many years I’ve been calling for the abolishing of ICE. But we know Keith Porter in Los Angeles lost his life. Silverio Garcia in Chicago lost his life. And we haven’t even started to talk about what is happening with ICE behind the wall, the number of deaths that have occurred there – over 30. So Congress must do everything in its power to rein in the terror of this lawless, rogue agency. REPORTER: Congresswoman, in addition to trying to smear the name of Renee Good by calling her an extremist and a domestic terrorist and other things, the administration has also limited or put an end to the FBI cooperating with state and local officials in an investigation of the shooting of Renee Good. You tried to put forth a motion to have the shooting investigated, and the House – the Republican members of the House Oversight Committee – voted against it. Why do you think they voted against it? I mean, shouldn’t we all want transparency into what happened on that Minneapolis street? REP. AYANNA PRESSLEY: Jonathan, they are so unserious about the work of oversight, about the need for truth, transparency, and accountability. They have made a practice of making fiction more compelling than the facts, so they don’t want the truth. And yes, in real time in that committee hearing – that oversight hearing, which was a hearing about Minnesota – I did file a motion for a subpoena so that we could see all footage, all documents, anything related to the murder in broad daylight of an unarmed citizen on a residential street shot three times into her car. And they voted no. And this is the work of the Oversight Committee. ICE is federal law enforcement. And so that is the point: we have to, in Congress, leverage every tool available to hold this administration, to hold ICE accountable. So whether that is public hearings, whether that is calling Kristi Noem and Tom Homan before the committee, whether that is ending qualified immunity, whether that is using the power of the purse that Congress has – in an appropriations process right now – we should not be funding this terror. And what I will say to you is that I know that there are many people at home who have seen what has happened – again in Los Angeles with Keith Porter, or with Silverio Gonzalez in Chicago, or with Renee Good in Minnesota – and they think they’ll be exempt from this harm, that this could never happen to them. I can assure you that each of those individuals thought that for themselves as well. This harm does not discriminate. It is common for everyone. And that is exactly why ICE must be stopped, because they’re not operating with any constitutional due diligence. They are lawless. They are masked thugs. So whether you are a white woman, whether you are Black or brown – certainly our most vulnerable communities are the most vulnerable to the attacks of this rogue agency – but all of our communities are vulnerable to the attacks of this rogue agency. And Congress must rein them in, and we have the power of the purse, appropriations, to do exactly that.

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