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By David Lightman
Padilla for a DHS Investigation
Sen. Alex Padilla and dozens of congressional Democrats Monday demanded that the Department of Homeland Security investigate the agency’s controversial policies on arrests, detentions and deportations.
In a letter to department officials, they cited the Immigration and Customs Enforcement policy saying that it “cannot assert its civil immigration enforcement authority to arrest and/or detain a U.S. citizen.”
But, the Democrats said, ICE “has arrested U.S. citizens, even appearing to use violent physical force. ICE has also detained citizens in immigration detention facilities, sometimes for over a week.”
The actions, they said, “threaten the safety, due process, and civil liberties of Americans around the country.
“When immigration agents arrest Americans without sufficient cause or simply because they are near an enforcement action, detain them without access to counsel, or ignore proof of citizenship, DHS fails in its core duty to protect the public and undermines trust in its operations,” they wrote.
Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment by deadline. Officials have consistently defended ICE agents, saying they were doing their job properly.
Padilla, D-Calif., is the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Immigration, Citizenship and Border Security subcommittee.
The Democrats are seeking an answer to their request by Sept. 5. They’re looking for what they said is “clarity on its policies and guidelines related to the arrests or detentions of U.S. citizens, along with: data on stops, arrests, detentions, and deportations of citizens this year; information about how agents are trained to verify citizenship status; and any ongoing reviews or investigations of wrongful detentions of citizens.”
Also signing the letter was Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and California Democratic Reps. Judy Chu , Laura Friedman, Jared Huffman, Ro Khanna, Dave Min, Lateefah Simon and Eric Swalwell.
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