Durbin Responds To Killing Of Alex Pretti On Senate Floor

WASHINGTON – In a speech on the Senate floor, U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, spoke about the killing of Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse at a VA hospital in Minneapolis, by federal agents this weekend. During his speech, Durbin reiterated his opposition to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding bill and argued that if the government shuts down yet again, it will be because Congressional Republicans refused to place guardrails on this reckless President.

“Earlier this month, the nation watched in horror as social media was flooded with images and videos of a federal immigration officer shooting and killing an American citizen, Renée Good, as part of the Trump Administration’s militarized enforcement operations in Minneapolis. Now, fresh on the heels of that tragedy, another one has struck. This weekend, federal agents gunned down yet another American in Minneapolis… Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse at a VA hospital in Minneapolis,” Durbin said. “The killing of Alex Pretti has further intensified tensions in a city already reeling from the President’s aggressive campaign of terror.”

Durbin continued, “What was the Trump Administration’s immediate response when they heard of this second killing in Minneapolis? Not to bring down the temperature, but instead to rush to the American people with one message: don’t believe your eyes. Don’t believe what you see. It’s the same playbook they used after the killing of Renée Good and with other federal immigration officer-involved shootings and incidents.”

Durbin then laid out the case for why President Trump has targeted Democratic-led cities and states and refuted some of the claims his Administration has made.

“If the President wants to work together on reducing crime, count me and Governor Walz in. But these lawless immigration operations are establishing a reign of terror, first in Chicago and now in Minneapolis/St. Paul—eroding constitutionally-protected civil liberties while indiscriminately rounding-up people for the crime of being Black or Brown,” Durbin said. “Even the Editorial Board of the Wall Street Journal—no liberal publication—agrees. In an editorial yesterday, they noted that since October, 73 percent of the individuals taken into ICE custody had no criminal conviction and only five percent had a violent criminal conviction… Donald Trump is hell bent on punishing his political opponents in the blue states of America and those who did not vote for him in the last election. We see the cost.”

Durbin then called out DHS Secretary Kristi Noem for refusing to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee, under oath, to answer questions regarding her Department’s actions. It was announced earlier this week that she will finally appear before the Committee on March 3.

“The time for accountability is now. I have been calling for DHS Secretary Noem to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee for almost one year… Now she tells us it’s possible her schedule may loosen up, and she may be able to come before the Senate Judiciary Committee in five weeks, on March 3—if she happens to still be the DHS Secretary then,” Durbin said. “With all the violence and deaths surrounding DHS, the Secretary is in no hurry to account for her mismanagement of this national crisis. And she expects us, in the meantime, to rubber stamp her record-breaking budget.”

Durbin concluded by reiterating his opposition to the DHS funding bill.

“Over the weekend, I announced my opposition to the DHS funding bill. I will not vote to fund the illegal DHS and ICE operations that terrorize the city of Chicago, Minneapolis, and so many other communities. The deaths of innocent Americans and the detaining of thousands of innocent people are a national disgrace,” Durbin said. “We need to work on a bipartisan basis to pass the five appropriations bills that have been sent to us by the House, and then work to rewrite the DHS bill to address well-documented abuses witnessed by the American people. Anything less than this approach is a non-starter with me.”

Durbin concluded, “If the government shuts down yet again, it will be because Congressional Republicans refused to place guardrails on this reckless President and the ICE agency. In the meantime, I urge my Republican colleagues to join us in that endeavor before Kristi Noem and her squad take another innocent life.”

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