'Klanhood and slave patrol': DHS leaders silent as accused of 'great evil'

A lawmaker Tuesday warned Department of Homeland Security leaders that they would face justice following the deaths of American citizens and unlawful behavior by federal agents.

Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-IL) had a serious message for the heads of the agencies responsible for carrying out the Trump administration's harsh immigration tactics and mass deportation policy during a hearing where leaders were testifying ahead of a looming DHS funding deadline.

"My mother, a Guatemalan immigrant and an American, taught me that I have a responsibility to look evil in the eye and to fight it," Ramirez said.

She called out ICE Director Todd Lyons, Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Joseph Edlow, speaking directly to the three men testifying before congressional leaders.

"You have used your power to perpetrate great evil. And it's about time you answer to this committee for the lawlessness that you've empowered and defended in your testimony," Ramirez said.

Ramirez described the methods ICE has used against immigrants and citizens, including extreme violence, detaining children, using children as bait, violating court orders, creating traps at immigration court, entering homes without warrants. She focused on CBP and its roving patrols, intimidation, plate-switching, using chemical agents against people — after a judge ordered for it to stop — shooting people, including the deaths of Alex Pretti and Renee Good.

"I have as much respect for you as I do for the last white men who put on masks to terrorize communities of color. I have no respect for the inheritors of the Klanhood and the slave patrol. Those activities were immoral then and criminal, and so are yours," Ramirez said.