Rep. Jason Crow On Shutting Down Government Over ICE Funding: “Hell Yes”
Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO) told CNN’s Kasie Hunt that Democrats should use an upcoming funding fight to rein in ICE.
KASIE HUNT, CNN: So in your role as a member of Congress, there’s obviously been this push among Democrats to use funding bills for the government to try to restrict the actions of ICE to potentially reduce their funding. There are now some suggestions that things like body cameras, additional de-escalation training might lead some Democrats to drop those demands. How far do you think your party should go in these funding fights to try to change how ICE is operating on the ground? REP. JASON CROW (D-CO): Well, it’s not novel to suggest that we should use funding bills to actually impact policy with the government. That is literally our job. The Congress exists to make sure the laws are followed and then we use the funding bills to make better policy and to make sure that what the executive branch is doing is consistent with the morals and values of our communities and the places we represent. So hell yes, we should be using the funding bills to make sure that a runaway, rogue agency that is abusing our communities acts more responsibly. And I used the example earlier of these masked ICE agents, right? You have masked agents in unmarked vehicles picking up American citizens, deporting people, beating mothers, intimidating little league teams. I mean, need I go on the examples around the country? It has to end. It is not just our right as members of Congress to stop it, but it is our duty to stop the abuse. HUNTER: And is shutting down the government something that should be on the table? CROW: It should always be on the table, right? Why should we just say, no, we’re going to just give them whatever they want at the end of the day? Why would we tell Donald Trump that? I’m never going to tell him that, right? I am not going to give money to a government agency that’s going to act lawless, reckless in an unconstitutional way. There need to be guardrails put in place. We’re negotiating additional guardrails right now. The Senate is, the House is, and we’re going to see what comes out of those negotiations.
