Congressman Herb Conaway Jr., MD Statement on DHS Funding Bill

“For over a year now, ICE agents, operating under the authority of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), have spread fear in communities across the country. From pepper-spraying children in cars as they drove by and harassing American citizens at their homes through unconstitutional searches, to most recently when an ICE agent shot and killed an American citizen in Minneapolis. DHS has done absolutely nothing to rein in their reckless and poorly trained ICE agents. Rather than making our communities safer, they have made them more dangerous.

“DHS doesn’t need more funding—DHS doesn’t deserve more funding. I voted no because I will not give more money to a department that allows dangerous ICE agents to terrorize American citizens. I firmly believe that if DHS wants more funding, it must take serious and significant steps to rein in ICE agents and allow Congress to conduct the oversight that the Constitution grants us.”