Here and Now
Gwen Moore on ICE and Funding Levels for Homeland Security
Clip: Season 2400 Episode 2430 | 9m 31sVideo has Closed Captions
Gwen Moore on debate in Congress over funding the Department of Homeland Security.
U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore, D-4th Congressional District, discusses debate in Congress over funding the Department of Homeland Security and stronger conduct requirements for ICE and other federal agents.
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Here and Now is a local public television program presented by PBS Wisconsin
Here and Now
Gwen Moore on ICE and Funding Levels for Homeland Security
Clip: Season 2400 Episode 2430 | 9m 31sVideo has Closed Captions
U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore, D-4th Congressional District, discusses debate in Congress over funding the Department of Homeland Security and stronger conduct requirements for ICE and other federal agents.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorship>> Democrats could block funding for Homeland Security when it expires next Friday, unless there are, in their words, dramatic changes to how immigration operations are conducted.
This comes in the aftermath of the deaths of two protesters in the midst of the enforcement surge in Minneapolis.
In Wisconsin, all six Republican members of Congress voted this week for the stopgap two week spending plan.
Both Democratic House members in Wisconsin voted against, including U.S.
Representative Gwen Moore of Milwaukee.
She joins us now from Washington.
And thanks very much for being here.
>> Oh, thanks for having me, Fredricka.
Always good to be with you.
>> So why did you vote no.
On the stopgap spending for Homeland Security?
>> Well, Frederica, I was being very consistent.
I voted against the bill when it passed the House and went on to the Senate.
The Senate, then Senate Dems managed to create a negotiation where they split the bills.
Theoretically, five bills to pass as is, and the Homeland security bill to have a two week stopgap.
When it came back to the House, I truly expected it to have an opportunity to vote on separately on the other five bills in Homeland Security.
But I had exactly one vote, and I decided to stick with my initial vote because of the egregious way that these, you know, you know, rogue forces were operating.
And of course, as you mentioned, they killed two people.
And, and and further, they've jailed children, American citizens, destroyed property and just terrorized our communities.
And I just couldn't in good conscience, knowing that I had an opportunity to to to vote and stick a pin in this to, to to not do so.
>> What specifically are you and others seeking around these accountability measures for agents that are part of these enforcement activities?
>> Well, thanks for asking for me.
Really common sense things.
Anything that any American would expect, how they would want to be treated as a citizen or not.
First of all, targeted enforcement have probable cause to stop someone, not stop someone because they are speaking Spanish or because they look like a Somali, or they look brown, or God forbid that they be a protester that's exerting exerting their First Amendment rights, and they get arrested for that, have a probable cause.
We want them to have no masks.
I mean, this is horrifying.
You know, Frederica, would any of us tolerate masked people not in uniform, but just dark clothes and hoodies to come up and and and kidnap us require some identification.
What?
What's wrong with a badge and a badge number?
We want state and local oversight and coordination in these arrests.
Police in Wisconsin have the right to prosecute Ice officers if they are using unreasonable force.
We want body cameras being used to record what's happening, not to track people, but to record what's happening.
And certainly no paramilitary police.
We want people trained as in regular law enforcement duties and standards, and we want them to have a judicial warrant in order to be able to arrest them, not an administrative warrant, not something that, you know, Kim Bondy has drawn up, but a warrant, a warrant signed by a judge.
>> In in terms of judicial warrants instead of administrative warrants.
I've heard some Republicans say that the requirement of having judges sign off would cause gridlock in the system and dramatically slow this process.
What about that?
>> We wouldn't have a snag in the system if, in fact, they were going after the people they said they were going after.
Got God bless every Ice agent that finds a rapists and murderers and folks like that who have have breached our borders.
But to just round people up and to have a quota so that if they see you and I together, they decide to round us up so they can get their quota that day, none of that.
They they are creating the gridlock with these aggressive paramilitary activities.
>> What are your expectations for quick agreement around these measures that you call for?
>> These are not extraordinary things.
I mean, these are common sense things.
I mean, some of the worst criminals in the history of this country have not been confronted by agents with masks on and hoodies.
They have been arrested, given they're told what their rights are and and they're being reassured that they're being arrested by people who have the authority to do it, and they've been arrested because there was probable cause that they, in fact, were the people that they were seeking, not just some.
They were not five year old kids being scooped up in order to manipulate their parents into presenting themselves to be arrested.
This is common.
This is how hard could it be to come to some agreement around common sense, a common sense agenda?
Just regular order.
How about regular policing?
That's what we're asking for.
>> I wanted to get your take on the president calling to federalize elections.
Do you think Wisconsin, and especially Milwaukee could be a target of that?
>> Well, just let me say the Constitution, which the president seems to readily and often infrequently ignore, says that states shall run the elections.
So this is yet another unconstitutional thing that President Trump and his sycophants want to do.
I am so happy that Fulton County, Georgia, is suing the president over the seizure, the FBI seizure of their records.
And I'm sad to think that the Justice Department, that they are appealing to are a bunch of, you know, Trump cronies.
But at some point, I hope that the Supreme Court will uphold the 10th Amendment, the Supremacy Clause, which Republicans have often relied upon for their segregation purposes.
But the 10th Amendment clearly talks about a couple of things, like our right, for example, to have authority, resting powers and authorities in our jurisdictions, as well as securing our voting operations.
>> On another note, you've also been calling for the Wisconsin Supreme Court to act on congressional redistricting.
But resolution isn't at all likely ahead of the midterms, is it?
>> Oh, absolutely.
I would I am calling on the jurists to look at this before our midterm elections with all haste, as we see the president trying to steal the 2026 election.
You know, here we are in a state that's 50, 50 Democrat, Republican.
Everybody knows that this is the this is the purplest of the purple states.
That's why we saw all the candidates congregating here during the election because this was high on this, this this is a prize to either side.
And yet in Congress you got poor men.
Park Pocan holding it down for the Democrats.
And there is a 6 to 2.
Majority for Republicans.
And you know what?
In a 5050 state.
6 to 2, the math just ain't math.
And Frederica.
>> All right, Congresswoman >> All right, Congresswoman
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