As Congress negotiates guardrails for immigration enforcement, a Palm Beach County congresswoman returned to her district Monday to explain her stance and criticize the government’s “cruel campaign.”
In a press conference outside the federal courthouse in West Palm Beach, U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel, D-West Palm Beach, said agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are going after law-abiding families instead of violent criminals.
“Before we send one more penny to the Department of Homeland Security we need reforms,” Frankel said, “Reforms that are common sense.”
Those include banning immigration officers from wearing masks and requiring body cameras and identification. Congressional Democrats also want to end arrests in sensitive locations, like courthouses, churches and schools, and ban racial profiling, she said.
Negotiations are underway between Democrats and Republicans, after lawmakers split off funding for DHS from a larger government funding bill. Friday, Feb. 13, is the deadline for a DHS agreement. News reports say officials are far from reaching one and a partial government shutdown over DHS funding is likely.
More than a week ago, local advocates told Frankel at a roundtable event how Palm Beach County has been particularly affected by immigration arrests.
READ MORE: Palm Beach County is ‘belly of the beast’ for immigration arrests, activists tell officials
Many of those same advocates and officials returned for the Monday press conference and reiterated that.
“A lot of our community is afraid to even go outside,” District 3 Commissioner Joel Flores said. “A lot of families are having to choose who is going to work today because of who is going to take care of the kids if that other parent doesn’t come back home.”
He said he doesn’t think it’s fair that immigrants who are in the lawful process to get citizenship or asylum are being preyed on by ICE.
Government officials have repeatedly said ICE focuses on the “worst of the worst.” The agency disputed a recent news report from CBS News that found that less than 14% of the 400,000 immigrants arrested since Trump took office had criminal charges or prior convictions for violent crimes.
On Monday, Frankel also took aim at Gov. Ron DeSantis and his leadership of Florida Highway Patrol, which has caused Palm Beach County to lead the state in immigration enforcement activities, according to recent news reports.
“We have a governor who has decided he wants to be number 1 in enforcement,” Frankel said. “He has unleashed the highway patrol.”
DeSantis recently spoke on a podcast about what he saw as the state's successful immigration efforts. It came after reports that the state had spent nearly $600 million in immigration enforcement under DeSantis.
"What we've been able to do already has saved Florida a lot of money because you're removing people that would absolutely be a tax on the community's resources at both the local and state level," DeSantis claimed.
