Eric Swalwell claims ICE agents are running around ‘like masked bank robbers terrorizing women’
Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., said Wednesday that masked ICE immigration enforcement officers are behaving like "bank robbers."
"And these ICE agents running around our communities like masked bank robbers, terrorizing women, they’re going to get themselves hurt — and I hope that doesn’t happen," Swalwell said at a House Homeland Security Committee hearing entitled, "An Inside Job: How NGOs Facilitated the Biden Border Crisis."
"And we’re already seeing women are being targeted by people who are impersonating ICE agents," Swalwell added. "I hope every state that is able to, and every community that is able to, unmasks ICE with their policies. If you’re standing on the law, you can show your face."
On Sunday, border czar Tom Homan defended ICE using masks, telling Politico’s Dasha Burns, host of "The Conversation" podcast, that they are needed for safety.
"The attacks on ICE is unprecedented, 700% increased," Homan said. "And we're not even talking about the doxing of agents, their spouses and their children," highlighting that people are doxing ICE agents’ private information.
Swalwell said that because other law enforcement agencies don’t mask, ICE should not either. He also called out Homan, as well as Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, and White House advisor Stephen Miller.
"Secretary Noem does not want to come in and testify," Swalwell said. "Stephen Miller certainly doesn’t want to sit in that chair and defend putting this 6-year-old battling leukemia into deportation proceedings. Tom Homan doesn’t want to come here and defend why he thinks it’s okay to target people based on their accent and the color of their skin. Yes, he said that. Thankfully, a California court has shut that down, and hopefully more lawsuits are brought across America to shut that down."
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He then challenged Republicans for their support of the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement actions.
"Why do they enable this? Why aren’t they outraged that this 6-year-old boy was in a condition where children are crying every night and experiencing bone pain as he fights cancer? This issue is pretty simple. Go after the worst and protect the most vulnerable, the ones who are contributing to our community," he said.
During his remarks, Swallwell displayed a poster depicting part of a Monday article from The Independent by Alex Woodward entitled, "ICE detains six-year-old leukemia patient and his family — even though they’ve followed every immigration rule, lawyer says."
The story alleges ICE detained a six-year-old boy with leukemia in addition to his mother and 9-year-old sibling following their May 29 immigration hearing in Los Angeles. They were subsequently released July 2 following a lawsuit against the Trump administration.
In a statement to Fox News Digital, a White House spokeswoman said, "Eric Swalwell is a pathetic excuse for a Member of Congress. He knows how to do two things: lie and have affairs with Chinese spies," a reference to a saga for which Swalwell was investigated and has denied wrongdoing.
The White House spokesperson added that "President Trump’s homeland security team is successfully implementing the President’s agenda to deport criminal illegal aliens whether Swalwell likes it or not. Instead of attacking the heroic ICE agents enforcing the law he should be thanking them."
Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons also fired back in a comment to Fox News Digital.
"You would think a former prosecutor like Rep. Swalwell would understand what ‘bank robbers’ actually do — commit crimes and endanger the public. Sounds like he misspoke and was referring to the criminal illegal aliens that ICE is bravely removing from American communities," he said.
Fox News Digital reached out to DHS and Swalwell's office for comment.