Democracy Now! Audio - Democracy Now! 2026-01-28 Wednesday

Episode Date: January 28, 2026

Headlines for January 28, 2026; ICE “Wartime” Recruiting Effort Targets Gun & Military Lovers Using White Nationalist Messaging; Rep. Ilhan Omar Attacked by Man at Minneapolis Town Hall After She Called for Noem’s Impeachment; “The Border Is the Entire Country”: How Trump Brought Borderland Violence into U.S. Cities; Abolish ICE: Rep. Delia Ramirez Calls for Defunding DHS & Defends Rep. Ilhan Omar After Attack

From New York, this is Democracy Now. And PHS Secretary Kristy Noem must resign or face impeachment. During a town hall in Minneapolis, Democratic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar is attacked by a man who sprayed a foul-smelling substance at her. The man was arrested and Omar insisted on continuing the event. We'll hear the Congress member in her own words and get response from her colleague, Democratic Congresswoman Delia Ramirez, who's leading the push to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Christy Knoe. Bottom line, you lie with impunity. You reject checks and balances and you ignore Congress in the courts. Your options are limited. Either you're going to resign, Trump's going to fire you, or you will be impeached. But first, we look at ISIS plans for the $100 million war time recruitment campaign to hire thousands of more agents by recruiting gun rights supporters and military enthusiasts.

Plus, we talk to a former senior border patrol agent who now speaks out against the agency's abuses. Americans need to be concerned about the U.S. Border Patrol being involved in this crackdown because they are some of the least accountable agents in the federal immigration enforcement agencies. And they have run secret and illegal cover-up teams since 1987. And they continue today under CBP. All that and more coming up. Welcome to Democracy Now.org, the War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman. Democratic Congressmember Ilhan Omar was attacked at a town hall in Minneapolis Tuesday night.

A man who'd been sitting in the front row rushed at Congressmember Omar and sprayed her with a strong, smelling liquid. This is Congressmember Omar just before she was attacked. And VHS Secretary Christine Nome must resign. or face impeachment. Congress member Omar insisted she continue with the town hall after the attack. Authorities arrested the attacker. 55-year-old Anthony Kazmirzak will play excerpts from the town hall later in the show. Just hours before Omar was assaulted, President Trump openly mocked the Congress member

during a rally in Iowa. They have to show that they can love our country. I have to be proud. Not like Ilhan, Omar. Did you see that wise guy? You know, she's always talking about the Constitution, you know, provides me with the following. You know, the Constitution, she comes from a country that's a disaster.

The attack on Omar comes just days after Democratic Congress member, Maxwell Frost was assaulted at the Sundance Film Festival by a man who was heard making racial slurs. A review by U.S. Customs and Border Protection's internal watchdog office directly contradicts the Trump administration's claims about the fatal shooting of 37-year-old Alex Preti. The CBP's report confirms two federal immigration agents fatally shot Prettie as they wrestled him to the ground and that he did not take out his gun. That's despite claims by Homeland Security Secretary Christy Noem, who said Preti had been, quote, brandishing a weapon. Now sources tell CNN that authorities had details on Preti a week before he was fatally shot. In a separate encounter, Prattie had

suffered a broken rib when a group of federal officers tackled him while he was trying to protect protesters from being arrested. It comes as House Democratic leaders are threatening to launch impeachment proceedings if Nome is not fired. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Congress members Catherine Clark and Pete Aguilar said in a statement, quote, we can do this the easy way or the hard way, unquote. President Trump's rejected calls to fire Nome, saying she's doing a, quote, very good job, unquote. Meanwhile, a federal judge in Minnesota ordered the head of ICE, Todd Lyons, to appear in court on Friday and explain why he should not be held in contempt for violating court orders about the immigration crackdown.

The judge, Patrick Schlitz, who was appointed by President George W. Bush, said Lions must appear in court because, quote, the extent of ICE's violation of court orders is likewise extraordinary, unquote. It comes as dozens of cities filed an amicus brief in federal court to stop the Trump administration's surge of ICE agents into Minneapolis. Meanwhile, FBI director Cash Patel announced a criminal probe into group chats used by Minneapolis protesters on the signal messaging app. In Minneapolis, local businesses on the block where Preti was shot and killed by federal agents have opened their doors to, protesters and are continuing to operate donation hubs for the community. Because people are willing to come spend their hard-earned money with me, the least I can do is open up my doors when it's gas outside. Least I can do is let my bathrooms be public. Least I can do is have water up here waiting for y'all. So if you need solids, if you need heat,

if you need electricity, our job as business, our job as small business owners is to embrace the community that's coming to spend money with you under all circumstances. A federal judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from deporting five-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father, Adrian Conejo. Liam was detained with his father in Minnesota after the little boy came home from preschool last week. Images of Liam went viral after he was picked up by federal agents while still wearing his Spider-Man backpack and a blue hat with bunny ears. Liam and his father are currently detained at Isis South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, which has faced mounting reports of worsening conditions for immigrant families jail there. Liam's father has filed a lawsuit against Homeland Security Secretary Christine Nome, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and other Trump officials. Liam and his father had come to the U.S. in 2024 from Ecuador seeking asylum.

In related news, a five-year-old girl and U.S. citizen was deported to Honduras with her mother earlier this month. Gennesis, Esther Gutierrez Castellanos, lived in Austin, Texas with her mom and family where she was in kindergarten. Hennesis and her mother were reportedly detained in a hotel 80 miles from their home for nearly a week without access to a lawyer or a hearing before a judge prior to their deportation with their family. not knowing their whereabouts four days. The mother Karen came to the United States in 2018. She'd applied for protections in the U.S. as a survivor of domestic violence. Her daughter, Hennesis, was born here in the United States. Here in New York, dozens of demonstrators were arrested in Manhattan Tuesday after they occupied the lobby of a Hilton Hotel where federal immigration agents are believed to be staying. More than a hundred people.

people rushed into the hotel chanting anti-ice slogans. New York City mayors are on Mamdani praise the protesters. In a statement, Mamdani spokesperson said, quote, ICE is a rogue agency that has repeatedly carried out cruel, inhumane, and lawless raids and arrests of American citizens. Democracy now is at the protest. My name is Reverend Micah Busy. I'm the senior minister at Judson Memorial Church in Greenwich Village.

We are here to say no more deportations, no more murders, abolish ICE. The bottom line is abolish ICE. And from there, we are moving toward collective liberation. I'm banking on being arrested because it's time that every citizen risks arrest. Everyone who is able to be out here doing this, we all have our part to play. Not everyone can do what I'm doing today. ICE agents will join the U.S. delegation to the Winter Olympics in Italy next month by President J.D. Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio are expected to attend the start of the

games. Milan's mayor, Giuseppe Sala, said ICE will not be welcome in his city, telling an Italian radio station, quote, this is a militia that kills a militia that enters into the homes of people signing their own permission slips, unquote. This is Pierre Francesco Majorino, the head of Italy's center-left opposition party. I believe this is truly very bad news. We don't want Trump's thuggish squad here, people who kill civilian citizens. We don't need them. I don't understand what they're even doing here.

And so we think that the government and all institutions together should say, we don't want you. The Trump administration's reportedly planning to establish a permanent CIA presence on the ground in Venezuela, following the abduction of President Nicolas Maduro and his wife. That's according to CNN, which spoke to several anonymous sources that outlined talks between the State Department and the CIA have weighed short and long-term schemes to foster U.S. influence in Venezuela. One source told CNN, quote, state plants the flag, but CIA is really the influence, unquote. CIA officers were in Venezuela in the months leading up to the U.S. military strike targeting Maduro and his wife. The agency covertly installed a small team inside Venezuela. in August to surveil Maduro, providing key intelligence for the attack on Caracas earlier this month.

One CIA source reportedly operated within the Maduro government. In related news, the families of two men from Trinidad killed in an October U.S. missile strike in the Caribbean are suing the Trump administration for wrongful death in extrajudicial killing. Chad Joseph, who is 26 and 41-year-old Rishi Samaru, were killed. in one of the 36 strikes, the U.S. government has launched against boats in the Caribbean and Pacific Ocean since September. At least 125 people have been killed in these strikes. President Trump's continuing its threats against Cuba, saying Tuesday the island nation has not received any more oil or money from Venezuela since the U.S. abducted the Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.

The aid was a lifeline for Cuba, which has been devastated by decades of harsh U.S. economic sanctions. This comes as Politico reports. Trump's considering imposing a total blockade on all oil imports to Cuba. These were Trump's remarks Tuesday. Cuba will be failing pretty soon. Cuba is really a nation that's very close to failing. You know, they got their money from Venezuela or they got the oil from Venezuela. They're not getting that anymore.

This comes as Mexico has canceled, its oil shipments to Cuba, Mexican President Claudia Shanebaum, confirm the move on Tuesday, saying the decision was not made in response to U.S. pressure. It is a sovereign decision, and Pemex makes its choice. And also, as we have said, Mexico's decision to sell or give oil to Cuba for humanitarian reasons has to do with a sovereign decision that has been in place for many years. It is not recent. The Justice Department says they'll finish reviewing and publishing files on the late-convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein soon. not provide a specific timeline. The DOJ has released over 100,000 pages so far less than

1% of the Epstein files. And South Carolina's reported nearly 800 measles cases, the largest outbreak in the United States since the disease was declared eliminated nearly two decades ago. The state's health department said at least 18 people have been hospitalized for complications. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has upended immunization policies in the U.S. as he and his allies have spread misinformation about vaccines. And those are some of the headlines. This is Democracy Now. Democracy Now.org, the War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman. As outrage grows across the United States over the Trump administration's deadly immigration

crackdown in Minnesota, we begin today's show looking at the recruiting practices of ICE, that's immigration and customs enforcement. The Washington Post recently reported an internal strategy document shared among immigration officials that details plans to spend $100 million over a one-year period to recruit gun rights supporters and military enthusiasts through online influencers and geo-targeted ads. The article in the post is headlined ICE plans $100 million war time recruitment push targeting gun shows military fans for hires. We're joined now from Tampa, Florida, by one of the reporters who broke the story. Drew Harwell is a technology reporter with The Washington Post. Drew, welcome to Democracy Now. Explain exactly what you found, who exactly is being targeted with this massive influx of money.

Yeah, thank you, Amy. This is called a surge hiring marketing strategy document. It goes into extraordinary detail into the methods they want to use to, reach more than, you know, 14,000 new employees for ICE to basically double the deportation strike force that they have on the street. How they want to reach those people is through social media marketing, real world marketing, right, billboards and bus stops, kind of the classic traditional styles of advertising, but also through these unusually precise techniques that would include geo-targeting. So they would basically create a fence or a fence or

around gun shows, UFC fights, NASCAR races, military bases, to really try to identify who are these people who would be interested in becoming new soldiers for their fight against immigration. If you can talk about the language and imagery of these recruitment ads, most of them seem to rely on, to say the least, jingoistic and xenophobic wartime rhetoric and symbolism, where joining ISIS seen as performing a, quote, sacred duty of, quote, defending the homeland and expelling foreign invaders because America needs you. And then there's the overt references to white supremacist messaging less than two days after ICE agent Jonathan Ross fatally shot Renee Good in Minneapolis. Multiple social media accounts run by the Department of Homeland Security posted a recruitment ad for ICE. captioned, we'll have our home again with the image of a man and a cowboy hat riding a horse

in a snowy field, the caption referencing the title of a white nationalist song that's popular in neo-Nazi circles. Last year, an ICE recruitment post on Homeland Security's X account showed an image of Uncle Sam at a crossroads with signs pointing to cultural decline, homeland, and an invasion. The post was captioned, which way American man, which echoes the title of a white supremacist neo-Nazi book, which way Western man, more recently adopted as a popular far-right meme. Can you talk more about these white supremacist messaging in government posts? Yeah. You know, if there were, if there was one slogan that seemed to have some connection to neo-Nazi spaces, it might be a coincidence, but we've seen a pattern of these kinds of, you know,

songs that were popular among these very far-right circles, messages, even kind of visual styles that you would see in memes that, you know, once we're kind of 4chan, far-right, extremist memes, they're now being, you know, trafficked by the government. So, you know, the DHS has defended themselves as saying, you guys are grasping at straws. This is, this is all the coincidence. But I think, you know, there's a, pattern there that people are really seeing. And, you know, the broader message on all their advertising is, as you said, they are characterizing this as a war against foreign invaders. They are not subtle about it, right? They're really using militaristic language to frame this

as a battle of good versus evil. White, classic, traditional Americans defending the homeland against foreign invaders. And so you've seen in their marketing, it really is, you know, you have a lot of kind of army style messaging where it's big guys with guns on the border, you know, repelling the hordes. Or you have this more classical Americana, almost wartime propaganda from World War I style of advertising where, you know, it's these kind of classic white Americans who are defending the West, moving out into the frontier, kind of fighting the horde. So this style of marketing is very new, even for ICE. You know, ICE is not really gone to this level of aggressive, you know, jingoistic messaging.

But it's, and they're spending a lot of money on it. So you're just seeing it everywhere on social media now. And the question is, who are they trying to attract? Why are they using this messaging? Are they going for people who are really trying to crack some skulls and, and, and defend this, what they think is the American way of life? Is that kind of why they're framing it this way? Drew, Congressmember Raskin recently wrote to Homeland Security Secretary Nome for ICE recruiting records asking how many pardoned January 6th insurrectionists have been hired by your respective departments? Do you know anything about this, Drew? I've seen that letter and this has been a question, you know, because part of what they're trying

to do is attract so many people. This is a department that has tried to backfill attrition over the years, but they've never tried to get thousands of people all at once to go out on the street. So they're changing their standards for who they feel is qualified to come in. And so the question is, are they changing the standards to such a degree that they're allowing in people who are untrained? This is something I hear from people inside ICE and DHS all the time. We're bringing in people who are untrained, who don't have law enforcement background or mistrained or just want a badge and a gun, right? You just want to go out on the street and rough people up. And so there's a question of, are these people that you're getting in, um, hardcore partisans who are in it for the glory of combat, or are these people who are

going to come in and really follow the law and try to be nuanced and niche about it and, or do they just want to craft it? It's really interesting about the cutting back of training. Senator John Warner recently said that the cutting back of training was to 47 days, which is way less than it used to be. Um, and he was saying that it's 47, um, and he was saying that it's 47, um, for the 47th President Donald Trump. But if you can talk about the benefits that ICE is offering recruits and the ways ICE is sweetening the deal,

this is a like five-second snippet from an ICE ad on Google that promises a bonus of up to $50,000 and student loan forgiveness. Join ICE with bonuses up to $50,000 and generous benefits. Drew Harwell, can you comment on this? It's a lot of money

and it's attracting people right? I mean, some of these deportation officer jobs start at $50,000 salaries. So they're really trying to throw money at people to get them in the door. But also, you know, the people who are coming in may not be qualified to be in the door, right? And, you know, if you're giving them less training, 47 days of training just because it's an arbitrary number that you like because of the president, are you removing that, you know, standard that's going to make them quality recruits just to satisfy this other metric? Now, I know you have to go. And so I want to ask you a question you can answer in 15. seconds on slightly different issue. And it's Nikima Levy Armstrong. You're the tech reporter for the Washington Post. What the Department of Homeland Security put out that picture where they changed her image as she was being arrested. She was just walking. Instead, they showed her crying. Yeah, they digitally altered it, right? And they put it out there without any kind of disclosure to demean her, basically, to make her look like, you know, in the real picture, she's standing tall,

she's walking in the fake photo, she's just sobbing, tears streaming down her face. And, you know, it's a lie, basically. They are lying to Americans about what they're capturing. And they're doing it in a subtle way. You know, we've seen the memes from the White House that have been very bombastic, Trump and the fighter jet dumping poop on protesters. They're satirical, a little disturbing, but they're still, you know, basically a joke. This is, I think, even more disturbing based on the people I talked to because it was so subtle. And if you were to only see it from the White House account, which again, is a traditional. government account that requires us to trust them, asks us to trust them, you're going to get a completely false impression of the reality. So I think it's just, it's scary because it shows that if the White House wants to target you and manipulate your image, they'll do it. They don't seem to have any qualms about doing that. So I think that that presages some scary things for the future. Drew Harrowa, want to thank you so much for taking this time. Technology reporter for the Washington Post joining us from Tampa, Florida. Coming up, we'll hear XOR, excerpts from Congresswoman Ilhan Omar's town hall last night, where she was attacked by a man who sprayed her with an unknown substance from a syringe.

We'll speak to Congressmember, Delia Ramirez. Stay with us. This is Democracy Now. Democracy Now.org, the War and Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman. Democratic Congress member Ilhan Omar was attacked at a town. hall meeting in Minneapolis Tuesday night. She'd organized the meeting to respond to President Trump's deadly militarized immigration crackdown in Minnesota. A man who'd been sitting in the front row at the town hall rushed at Omar and sprayed her with a strong smelling liquid from a syringe. H.S. Secretary Kristy Noem must resign or face impeachment. Authorities arrested the attacker, 55-year-old Anthony Kazmirjerk.

Congress member Omar insisted on continuing with the town hall after the attack. These are some of the excerpts from the town hall starting before the attack, then moving into it and playing what happened after. In the fifth, we oftentimes talk about how important it is for us to go govern together. and I am really delighted for this showing. The level of violence, federal overreach, lawlessness carried out in the name of immigration enforcement is unprecedented. U.S. citizens are being assaulted and detained.

Minnesotans are expected to carry their citizenship papers. People are dying in ICE custody. Trump and his paramilitary immigration enforcement will not get away with their unlawful attacks on our state. The Constitution is on our side, and we will fight every single day to defend it. As it's been said, real justice and accountability starts with full transparent investigation

and legal action against ICE, followed by the abolishment of the agency. Renee Good should be alive. Alex Pretty should still be alive. Please, let's take a moment of silence for Alex and Renee. ICE cannot be reformed. It cannot be rehabilitated. We must abolish ICE for good.

And DHS Secretary Kristy Noem must resign or face impeachment. I don't know. My God, he's sprayed something on her. I need a napkin. Whatever it is, smells so bad, she needs to go get checked. I don't know what that was. That's what they want. It's not about him, Ilhan.

It's not about him. It's about your safety. No, he sprays police. You need to go get shared. And it smells terrible. We're going to keep talking. And like I said, if she does not resign, we are going to introduce articles of impeachment. The children that are afraid to go to schools, the mothers and fathers that are afraid to drop them off,

The elderly shop owners at Caramel Mall, they're all citizens. But they don't want the trauma of seeing men with heavy machine guns because that is who they escaped to come to the United States. They don't want to go through a checkpoint because that is what they escaped to come to the United States. They don't want a gun to go through a checkpoint because that is what they escaped to come to the United States. They don't want a gun drawn on them asking for their identification because that's what they escaped. It's truly heartbreaking this moment we find ourselves in. But if we know anything about U.S. history is that everything is temporary.

And we will find our way out of this. So thank you all. That was Minnesota Democratic Congress member Ilhan Omar, speaking at last night's town hall event in Minneapolis. After she was attacked by a man who sprayed her with a strong smelling liquid from a syringe, her security tackled him. The man was arrested. Just hours before Congresswoman Omar was assaulted, President Trump openly mocked her during a rally in Iowa.

They have to show that they can love our country. They have to be proud. Not like Ilhan, Omar. Did you see that wise guy? You know, she's always talking about the Constitution, you know, provides me with the following. You know, the Constitution. She comes from a country that's a disaster. The attack on Minneapolis Congresswoman Ilhan Omar comes just days after Florida Democratic Congressmember Maxwell Frost was assaulted by a man during a party at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah.

The man was heard making racial slurs at Frost, who is the first Afro-Cuban to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives. Coming up, we'll speak to Democratic Congress member Delia Ramirez of Illinois. And we'll also speak with a former Border Patrol agent who's now speaking out against her former agency. Stay with us. Don't let go. Stay strong system. Keep a hold. And the Northans blow.

North Winds by Thomas Pritchard and Hussein Cade. This is Democracy Now. Democracy Now.org, the Warren Peace Report. I'm Amy Goodman. The Trump administration is removing Border Patrol commander at large Gregory Bovino from Minnesota after federal agents, fatally shot Alex Preti, the 37-year-old VA-I-C-O nurse Saturday morning. Levino has been the face of Trump's roving paramilitary style immigration crackdown, Minneapolis,

and other Democratic-led cities. Shortly after Preti was killed, Vovino had claimed Prattie intended to massacre law enforcement, a statement unsubstantiated by video and witness testimony from the scene. According to the Atlantic magazine, Bovino will return to his previous post in El Centro, California is expected to retire soon. This is President Trump speaking on Fox News. You know, Bovino is very good, but he's a pretty out there kind of a guy. And in some cases, that's good. Maybe it wasn't good here.

But you have to understand, when I watch some of the people that I've been watching over the last few weeks, these are paid insurrectionists. These are paid agitators. These people are normal, like, OG, that, you know, they're incensed. about anything. The Border Patrol has taken on an outsized role in Trump's crackdown in the interior of the country. Operations historically handled by ICE alone. Border Patrol has a history of aggressive tactics and little transparency or scrutiny in the remote areas in border towns where they normally operate. The agency also has more authority to operate far from the

border than is commonly understood. To talk more about the role in history of the agency, we're joined now by two guests. Jen Buds, a former border patrol agent turned immigrant rights activists. She was a senior patrol agent in San Diego and an intelligence agent at San Diego sector headquarters from 95 to 2001 when she resigned. Her work is featured in the recently released film Critical Incident Death at the Border on HBO Max. And Todd Miller is with us, an award-winning independent journalist who's reported on border security and immigration for over a decade. His most recent book is Empire of Borders. The expansion of the U.S. border around the world and Border Patrol Nation dispatches from the front lines of homeland security. He's the editor

of the independent journalist project, The Border Chronicle. And as we speak to you, Todd, as we booked you yesterday, yet another shooting by border police, this one on the border in your town in Tucson. If you can talk about what's happening in the country's awareness, especially in the interior, hundreds of miles away from the border, of what

Border Patrol is doing, something you've been looking at for years, especially right on the border. Thank you, Amy. Yes. Yes. In fact, yesterday, when we were doing the, when I was talking to the producers yesterday,

that's when I found out the news, too, that another shooting had happened by U.S. Border Patrol of a person in Arivaca, Arizona. And this is right as we're contemplating these, the Alex Prattie, you know, in Minneapolis, and how he was basically executed by a U.S. Border Patrol agent. And I can't help to think, you know, that what we're seeing, and with these different operations across the country like Operation Metro Surge, the operation in Minneapolis or Midway Blitz in Chicago, is this extension of what we've been seeing, the sort of policies and practices that we've been seeing in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands now for decades.

And these policies and practices where we have to say that impunity is very much entrenched, that abuse is very much rampant. that where different things are actually experimented on, like surveillance techniques and tactics and different surveillance technologies, and then is transported, extended into different parts of the interior. It's almost as if the border itself is imposed in these operations in places like Minneapolis, and it becomes what a place where you have this, these counter, because you have to think of the, of the DHS forces when they, as a counterterror, because it came right out of 9-11, right? A counter-terror kind of domestic army, as one person has put it, that is now in putting a sort of border landscape in our cities. And that's the kind of connection I'm making myself from doing these, from decades of reporting on this and looking at what's going on with these operations.

What has surprised you most and in what's happening now? And Greg Bovina being the one who is focused on, who is now being forced out with Tom Holman's coming in, who was there under Obama, well known for addressing white supremacist groups, who was one of the architects of the family separation policy in Trump's first term in office, what this will mean. Yeah, with the switch from Bovino to Thomas Homan is really not much of a switch. I mean, looking at the only, the difference may be that Homan comes from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and Bovino is definitely from Border Patrol.

But in the sense, they're both from the DHS apparatus. And it's just like almost changing one image for another image with. the same exact. I can only imagine that there will be similar tactics. And one thing that's that's really sort of surprised me, like looking at these different operations across the country, I think back to the, actually the 1990s, when there was different Border Patrol operations, like Operation Gatekeeper or Operation Hold the Line or Operation Safeguard, and how that transpose the border policy to this massive undertaking of building up walls and surveillance and hiring tons of agents to be on the border to implement a prevention through deterrence strategy

that really has been a killing strategy. If you think about it, like deadly encounters, besides deadly encounters, like fatal shootings, there's been at least 10,000 people who have died crossing the border due to these strategies. So I've looked at these different strategies across the country and the leaders of these strategies like Bovino and now Homan. And I can't, I wonder, right, is this another massive shift in these sort of policies that we've seen that were, that was a massive shift in the 90s because we still have those now? Is this going to be the gateway into a new sort of border policy where the border is the entire

country? I want to bring Jen Budd into the conversation. There have been 12 DHS shootings since September. Amazingly, since Renee Good was killed on January 7th, there were two more in between her being killed and three more between her being killed and Alex Preti being killed. if you can talk about your Border Patrol experience, albeit years ago, and particularly talk about what happened in 2010 with the death of Anastacio Hernandez-Rohas and your observation of what's happening right now. Well, my time in the Border Patrol from 1995 to shortly before 2011 is exactly what I'm seeing right now. You just didn't see it. The rest of America didn't see it because it was happening.

happening down here on the southern border. And I would like to say that when people say that we, this isn't the training or that they're untrained, no, this is the training. This is what we've been doing for decades upon decades. The ramming of the vehicles, the injuring people, the shooting people, and then lying about it is what happened prior to 9-11 and then really got a lot of juice after 9-11. So you have to understand that the management of the Border Patrol has been corrupt for many generations. And then after 9-11, we just gave them money with little accountability and let them design their own accountability systems,

which we then filled with our own agents. So we make sure that when things are investigated, our own agents are actually the ones doing the investigations. To fast forward to 2010, when Anastacio Hernandez-Rohas was beaten. and tased and killed by Border Patrol, CBP, and ICE agents. The Border Patrol does not have the legal authority given to them by Congress to investigate their own use of force incidents. But the critical incident teams were designed in the Border Patrol in 1987 to start being the ones that report at least first to the scene.

and when you're the first to report to the scene, then you can control the evidence. They literally will manipulate the evidence. They will get rid of witnesses as we see what's going on in the good case and in the pretty case. So when I look at these cases happening today, it's the exact same thing as what we see in the HBO movie about Anastasio's murder. And the sad thing about all this, too, is that in 2000, the chief of the Border Patrol who ran the cover-up of Anastasio's killing was Rodney Scott, and now he is the head of CBP. And he, once again, controls these cover-up teams, which were rolled from Border Patrol

into CBP's Office of Professional Responsibility. So these teams are the same ones now doing the cover-ups for all of CBP. And I want to end by asking you about this culture of death within Border Patrol, Over 10,000 people have died crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. Talk about this high mortality rate as we wrap up. Well, I will say, Amy, that statistic is from the federal government, and that is not true. It is not my experience. That number is way too low.

The experience of people who find the bodies down here and people in Mexico with missing loved ones is we think it's about 80,000 since. October of 1994. If deterrence worked, we wouldn't be sitting here talking about all of this. And so we essentially, our immigration policies have created a mass grave down here on the southern border, which unfortunately most of the media has ignored. And most of our Congress members don't seem to care. That is what our immigration system is. It is an obstacle of death for most people, and we do not allow people to present themselves legally. When people say do it the right way, there is no right way to do it. And there hasn't been for quite some time. And Todd Miller, your final thoughts with this massive influx of tens of millions of dollars into the recruitment campaigns

and overall the immigration agencies, ICE and CBP. Yeah, this year, The combined budgets of ICE and CBP are $33.5 billion, and that's the largest it's ever been. At first, it's just barely ascended $30 billion. And when Trump, to give context, when Donald Trump's, during his first administration, he started at $20 billion. So you can see how much it's grown over the first Trump administration, the Biden administration, until now. And it's 33.5 billion. It's supposed to be in 2000, this year. It's going to be another, I think, about $34.5 billion.

Now, there's this $170 billion influx into the budgets from the big, beautiful bill act. I always get that wrong. The $170 billion. So all this money is going to go into more of what we've been seeing. I'm afraid that the money itself is like going to the crystal ball to see what we have before us. So with those sorts of challenges that those are the challenges we have in front of us. And so we're going to talk to a Congress member who's making a decision about whether the funding should continue for ICE and CBP. Todd Miller, I want to thank you for being

with us, award-winning independent journalists, report on border security and immigration for over a decade. And Jen Budd, former Border Patrol agent turned immigrant rights activists. She was a senior patrol agent in San Diego. This is Democracy Now, DemocryNow.org. I'm Amy Goodman. We end today's show with Congresswoman Delia Ramirez from Chicago, who's calling for ICE to be abolished and the Department of Homeland Security to be dismantled. We plan to focus this interview on your push to impeach DHS Secretary Christie Noem and the possible government shutdown. But I want to start by asking you about last night's attack on your colleague, Congresswoman Ilhan Omar. Last night, a man sprayed her with an unknown substance.

And VHS Secretary Kristy Noem must resign or face impeachment. Congressman Ilhan Omar continued with the town hall meeting despite her aides and others saying she should be treated. An ambulance was waiting for her. President Trump had just attacked her verbally a few hours. hours before at a rally in Iowa. And you have Congress member Maxwell Frost attacked at the Sundance Film Festival. He's the only Afro-Cuban member of Congress. Congress member Delia Ramirez, can you respond now to what you are seeing first to these attacks and then we'll talk about what you're calling for? Yeah. Look, Amy, it's disgusting and also scary.

But the president of this country has weaponized his trolls around the country to put the life of so many of us in danger. I mean, Ilhan is someone who has been serving her community, standing up for a community day in and day out. This man sat somehow in the second row, I think, and then got up and sprayed her something. But I want you to talk about how Ilhan just continued to carry in that town hall and what she said. She has survived more than that, and she will continue to stand up for a community, and nor Trump or any of these vicious, terrible, evil people will stop her from doing that. She should not have to continue to be as strong as she is, but her strengths, I think, inspires so many of us to say,

we will not stand for this. We certainly need to have the security measures in place. But this is a direct influence of what you're seeing from this president, from Stephen Miller and from every single person that continues to justify what this president is doing around the country. So if you can talk about what you are calling for when it comes to Christy Knoem, the Secretary of Homeland Security, who said after Alex Preti was killed by Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis, that he was brandishing a weapon.

Absolutely. that was in contradiction to any video. No one claims he was brandishing a weapon. And you have, as you said, Stephen Miller, talking about this would-be assassin who had gone to massacre police. What are you calling for in each of these cases? Yeah.

We need an independent investigation, but I think that we have enough footage as well to immediately realize that what Christine Norman, what Stephen Miller are saying is blatant lies. DHS kills and then they lie about it. And somehow they think that they can lie also about the video footage. If there was body cameras and footage that they would release, it would collaborate everything we saw from every single angle.

The CBP executed Alex Pruddy. DHS and ICE killed Silverio Villegas. DHS shot Marimard and then. lied about it and is unwilling to release all the evidence as her lawyers demanding for it now. Renee Good was killed by them and then they cursed at her as if this was some video game that they're playing as they're executing U.S. citizens, you know, in our cities. Here's the thing. She needs to be impeached. I'm grateful that Leader Jeffries is now saying that if Republicans are, if she's unwilling to resign or get fired that we're going to start the impeachment process in the House

of Representatives. She needs to be impeached, but Amy, that's not enough. She needs to be impeached, and then she needs to be prosecuted for the crimes under her watch. You heard someone just talk about DHS. DHS is rotten from the inside out. She needs to be impeached, prosecuted, but Tom Holman is no better. And that's who they're attempting to bring to repriments. replace her, you know that what we see in our communities will continue. The agency itself needs to be dismantled. Ice needs to be abolished. And I have a bill called Melt Ice Act that would prohibit DHS from using any more of this balloon levels of money that they have that are being used to abduct, to kidnap, and then detain people so that they can give these contracts to campaign donors of Donald Trump.

We have to abolish ICE. CBP was trained to operate in. in the way that it's operating, the entire agency of DHS needs to be dismantled, and FEMA can no longer operate under this rogue, under this rotten agency. So can you talk about what legislation that you've introduced to abolish ICE? I mean, you have Democrats, your colleagues, in the House last week, crossing the aisle and joining Republicans in funding DHS as it is, people like Tom. Suazi and another Long Island Congress member. Swazi has now apologized saying his constituents are angry.

He apologized because Prati was killed this weekend. And he said he really made a mistake in supporting this. But what actually happens now? This decision that can lead to a partial government shutdown if the Republicans don't agree to separate out the funding of DHS from the rest of the budget. Well, Republicans should immediately separate this budget the way that we did in the House. And then every single Democrat and every single Republican that's beginning to call for Christy Hone to resign should say, not one more dollar as long as Christine Nome is the secretary. Not one more dollar until we have body cameras, not one more dollar until we get rid of secret police.

But the point is, Amy, I can't justify anyone that would vote to send more money. Now, think about it, $170 billion taxpayer dollars through this big betrayal. bill, I call it. They call it a big, beautiful bill. And then you're going to go and send them more money so that they can continue to occupy cities. What people in Minneapolis are feeling in some way we thought in Chicago, it is an invasion of American cities. Chicago is still not okay from the invasion from Midway Blitz. And so it means that every single Democrat that is saying that what they're seeing every day is unacceptable, they have to call for more than training. They have to call for not one more dollar to be used by an agency that is executing people, that is abducting people.

And in detention, our neighbors, our constituents are dying in. And so it means no money. And if there's a government shutdown, I think we have to be very clear as Democrats what our demands are. Because you saw the failure of Democrats in the Senate last time we had a government shutdown. What did we, in fact, get from that shutdown? And I would say to you, Schumer has to do its job. Of course, I've called for his resignation. I still don't think that he is the leader that we need for this moment.

But his precise responsibility in this moment is to ensure that demands of the American people are hurt and not one more dollar is given to this agency that is right in killing American people. So now Bovino is out, head of CBP. Apparently, he's being sent back to Central California and will retire. And Tom Holman, considered by President Trump's sort of the adult in the room, is being brought in. Last year, it was reported. Holman had been recorded in 2024 accepting a bag. It was a bag from Kava, the store, with $50,000 in cash from a pair of undercover FBI agents who are posing as business executives in exchange for the money. Homan reportedly offered to help them secure future government contracts.

Bribery probe was open, but Trump's Department of Justice. shut down the investigation. I wanted to play a clip of NBC anchor Kristen Welker, questioning Holman about the incident in an interview on Meet the Press. I didn't take $50,000 from anybody, and that's the question for the FBI. I'm not going to give the story anymore, error.

Bottom line, I did nothing on illegal. I did nothing in the FBI and DOJ review this. No credible evidence I did anything because I didn't do anything illegal. But was there $50,000 in the back, and did you? I'm not giving the story any more here. This is an attack on my integrity and my professionalism. I'm not addressing it. That's a question of the FBI.

Can you address, given that it's been recorded? Did you keep the money? Did you return the money? I did not keep any. $50,000 is ridiculous. The FBI has been clear. And it's irritating, this story keeps going on and on and on, even though I've been found that nothing inappropriate. So I'm not going to ask any more of these questions.

But just to return the money? So that's Tom Holman, who's now been brought. brought in. Supposedly, ICE has also been brought in to deal with corruption in Minnesota. Holman's case, they did not come to a conclusion. The FBI just dropped the investigation recently. What are you calling for in his case and your response to him being brought in to head the ICE operations, the CBP operations? Tom Holman is corrupt. He is no better than Gregory Bovino. Tom Holman is also responsible for everything that is happening. He is a special advisor to the president on all immigration enforcement.

Everything that is happening, whether it's Alex, Renee, whether it's Elberio, and the dozens of other people have died under watch, Tom Homan is responsible for it as well. Rodney Scott, Tom Homan, Stephen Miller, Christy Noam. They are, Tricia. All of them are responsible. There is no fixing, reforming the Department of Homeland Security. My bill Melt Ice Act is a bill that members of Congress can co-sponsor that would prohibit from your taxpayer dollars being used to continue to do what you see in these streets. From the detention that you're seeing in these private detentions where the contracts are going to Donald Trump's campaign donors that Tom Holman is helping also facilitate.

This bill will also redirect. all that money back into the communities like Minneapolis, like Chicago, that have been harmed by immigration enforcement. But the point is this, Tom Homan, Rodney Scott, Todd Lyons, they are all to blame to what is happening. Getting rid of Christy Nome, of course, as a step forward, it is not enough. The entire agency needs to be dismantled. And Tom Homan is no better. Cash Patel's FBI closed the investigation into Homan, while opening investigations into protesters in Minneapolis. And the Civil Rights Division says they're not bringing civil rights charges against the agents who killed the U.S. citizens in Minneapolis. We have 20 seconds your final thoughts.

When you have an agency killing people executing them, lying about it, and then talking about investigating themselves or operating with impunity, you know exactly what is happening. ICE needs to be abolished. DHS needs to be dismantled. And we need to bring justice for every single person being experiencing the harm, the chaos and the terrorizing in every community in this country. Illinois Congress member Delia Ramirez speaking to us from Chicago. We want to thank you so much for being with us. I'm Amy Goodman. Thanks for joining us.