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The Department of Homeland Security took more rhetorical fire this week from the left over its “mass deportation operation” enforcement of immigration laws, and growing numbers of detainees in federal installations.
In Pennsylvania, lawmakers and advocates came together to back a new state bill that would ban law enforcement from obscuring their identity – as many ICE officers wear masks to protect themselves from being doxxed – where a union boss accused ICE of “disappearing innocent people.”
“I frankly have been horrified by the conduct of these federal agents as has been reported in the media,” said AFL-CIO Philadelphia Council President Danny Bauder.
Bauder, flanked by state Sen. Nikil Saval, D-Center City, and Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, went on to accuse ICE of acting like a famous mob informant from an Al Pacino film.
“I want to be very clear: kidnapping and disappearing innocent people is disgusting, it’s shameful, it’s un-American, and any claims to the contrary are absurd,” he said Thursday outside ICE’s office in Chinatown.
“There is no good reason why a public servant would ever have to obscure or hide their identity while working in uniform. These ICE agents are not Donnie Brasco in some sort of deep cover situation to take down this enormous organized crime gang.”
“These are people who are engaged in violent, warrantless kidnapping and detention, and they need to be held accountable for their actions,” Bauder said.
Saval, sponsor of the “No Secret Police” bill in the Republican-controlled Senate, characterized ICE operations as “heavily-armed, masked, unidentifiable individuals roaming our public spaces … disappearing our neighbors … and violat[ing] basic vital rights.”
State Sen. Amanda Cappelletti, D-Norristown, added that ICE has “actively undermine[d] public trust in our law enforcement agencies” and encourages bad actors to impersonate police due to their anonymous nature, according to City & State PA.
State Rep. Rick Krajewski, a democratic socialist representing West Philadelphia’s University City, introduced a companion bill in the Democratic-majority State House and told the outlet the effort is notably bolstered by a former cop: state Rep. Brian Munroe, D-Warminster.
“My job will be a lot easier if we don’t have a crime wave of people pretending to be ICE,” added Krasner.
Just down I-95, Maryland Democrats finally made it into the Baltimore ICE office they were rebuffed from a few weeks ago.
After their visit, the lawmakers blasted ICE for the process and the conditions inside the Charm City complex.
Rep. Kweisi Mfume, D-Md., told Baltimore press that ICE has a “great deal of inefficiency” in its operations.
“Shame on them,” Mfume – who represents much of the city – said. “The people of this nation deserve better no matter how you feel about immigration.”
Mfume warned against public complacency, appearing to allege that ICE could easily grab anyone off the street in the future.
“We recognize that today it’s somebody; or else tomorrow, it could in fact be one of us.”
In July, House Assistant Minority Leader Joe Neguse and Rep. Jason Crow, both D-Colo., sued the Trump administration over lawmakers being denied access to ICE facilities.
This week, they were able to take a sanctioned tour of an Aurora, Colo., facility along with Reps. Diana DeGette and Brittany Pettersen, both Democrats from Colorado.
According to a release from Pettersen entitled, “House Democrats hammer ICE after Aurora facility visit,” the agency required the group to sign privacy releases to speak with detainees.
DeGette called that another way of “stopping” lawmakers from visiting, according to Pettersen.
Meanwhile, back east, a congresswoman arrested during a prior ICE facility visit said she would not stop fighting for her cause.
Rep. LaMonica McIver, D-N.J., told the New Jersey Monitor that she had been criminally charged for doing her job and that being told she could face 17 years in prison is “nothing to joke with.”
“I’m a mother, I’m a wife, I have a family,” said McIver, who was joined both at the press availability and the raucous Newark ICE detention center visit by Rep. Robert Menendez Jr., D-N.J. – whose formerly senatorial father is behind bars on corruption convictions.
“I think they have an insatiable appetite for this, and it’s not about violent criminals,” Menendez Jr. said of the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement.
Fox News Digital reached out to DHS for comment.
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