Congressman Cohen Questions Witnesses at Hearing on Sanctuary Jurisdictions

WASHINGTON – The Republican-led Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security and Enforcement today held yet another hearing on sanctuary jurisdictions in advance of the November midterm elections. Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-9), a senior member of the Judiciary Committee, questioned witnesses about Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents’ accountability after killings in Minnesota and the competence of immigration policy leadership, and then focused on an incident over the weekend in Memphis.

In his remarks, he said in part:

“If we had better people running ICE what happened (in Minnesota) may not have occurred. We need experts - law enforcement experts – top notch people who know what they’re doing and can zero in on ‘the worst of the worst’ and get them off the streets and out of the country.”

Congressman Cohen said neither of Trump’s picks to run the Department of Homeland Security – Kristi Noem and Markwayne Mullin – were qualified.

He continued:

“Sanctuary cities are not the problem. Memphis is not a sanctuary city, but just this weekend we had the largest ICE raid in Memphis history. They picked up a hundred people out of a bar and took them and put them in buses at 2 o’clock in the morning. They claim they went to the bar, which is in a Hispanic neighborhood, because they had gambling going on…They took people out of the community. The Memphis mayor objected. I object. We don’t need the National Guard in Memphis. We don’t need ICE in Memphis. We need rational law enforcement and rational immigration (policy). We don’t have it.”

See his remarks here.

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