IHIP News - Dems Hold The Line And Fight ICE as They Attack Trump in the Senate

Episode Date: January 29, 2026

We check in with Rep. Greg Casar to discuss what the battle against ICE and Trump looks like from the inside. Order our new book, join our Substack, shop our merch, and more by clicking here: https://linktr.ee/ivehaditpodcast.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Today I am joined by a Democratic congressman who fights, who gets up in fights every single day. And of course, I'm talking about progressive caucus chair representative Greg Kassar. We have ICE agents murdering protesters in Minneapolis. Obviously, Minneapolis doesn't even really have an immigration problem. What is this whole operation about? This whole operation is the pinnacle of what Republican right-wing fraudsters and xenopholes have been building up to for years, right? In places like Texas, they've been pumping more and more and more money into the deportation machine, tons of people being hurt, but it's usually

working class people, poor people, folks that it hasn't been shown on TV. And now Trump and Stephen Miller and all these guys now have it at the pinnacle of what they've asked for. And you can see it. You can see what it means for this authoritarian, anti-immigrant, anti-working class agenda just full on on TV. And that means it's not just hitting immigrants. It means that U.S. veterans, citizens being thrown on the ground, stopped, searched without warrants, and even executed in the street. Because it reminds us of that very wise saying that first they came for somebody else. and then they came for somebody else until they come for you and there's nobody left to speak up for you. But what this is also about is not just the horrors, but the bravery of people in Minneapolis and all across the country who are leaving work, marching in the street, in the cold, standing up, pushing back.

Like you saw Ilhan Omar where that Trump guy came running at her to assault her. And she got back up in his face and said, we're hosting the town hall. It's about the bravery of people speaking out, even when a lot of politicians have been too much of cowards to speak out. Brave everyday people speaking out because that's what's going to push us through this. And right now, we're just seeing the horrors firsthand. And they want people to be scared and shut up. But this is the moment to do the opposite. Do you think ICE needs to be abolished?

I think that Republicans don't want you to know that ICE was only created in 2000. And three. That means the agency that is supposed to be focused on terrorism is the agency that is focused on immigration enforcement, where the vast majority of people, the only crime they've committed is trying to keep care of their family. That makes no sense. And then ICE isn't the only problem. You've got CBP where the officer who shot Alex Prattie was a CBP officer. So they're literally. little tinkers and reforms to ICE and CBP aren't enough. But Jennifer, what we deal with in Texas, and I know that you in Oklahoma deal with, is that Republicans try to misrepresent what it is we're trying to say. They hear the slogan and they say, see, these progressives, they want no immigration laws at all. And I'm not going to let them misrepresent us. What we need is a vastly different set of immigration laws. because they haven't been updated since I was born. What we need, we can't have immigration enforcement

where they are throwing everyday people to the ground, shooting them, separating families. We should have the federal government focused on people that are committing real, dangerous federal crimes. And for the millions of people who are just trying to be care of themselves and their family, they should have a pathway to citizenship.

And that's, I think, how we deal with the root of this problem. That's the policy that we need. Do you think Democrats in the Senate should vote to fund ICE? Absolutely not. And when you watch what is happening on TV right now, and you ask yourself, what can I do? There's something you can do today about this. The Senate is taking up votes today and likely through the weekend on supercharge funding ICE. And you can call your senator and tell them to vote no.

And if your senator is one of the folks that is boosting all of this and is into this horrible stuff, then you can figure out who's running against them and help them out. Or you can call your friends and these swing state senators, Democrats, and push right now. Because look, we have a chance to block this bill in the Senate and to demand some baseline reforms. We're not going to get everything we want because the Republicans control, the House, the Senate, and the White House. But you don't have to wait until those elections to get something done, use all of our leverage. And that's why we need senators to say, hell no, to boosting ICE funding this week. They're already starting to negotiate ICE, and they're saying stuff like, well, we're going to make them unmask, and we're going to make them where cameras, and we're going to require more training. I'm not politician.

I don't know the ends and ounce in the minutia of law enforcement, but I'm a pretty logical person. And to me, it seems like the ethos of the Trump administration is the law and the rules don't apply to us. We do whatever we want to do with impunity make us. They're not scared of Chuck Schumer. They're not scared of Hakeem Jeffries. They are not scared of Democrats. They do whatever they want to do.

So playing patty cake with them and saying, oh, we're going to train them more or we're going to put cameras on them or make them take their masks off. gives me no comfort that this is going to reform an agency that I think needs to be abolished. And I respect your position on that because I do think we have to offer an alternate. But it doesn't, to me, it shows no effort that this is going to change anything because we have a lawless tyrannical regime ruling the country with very little opposition in the House and Senate, and I'm not speaking about you personally, but I know there's not enough opposition

because Hakeem and Chuckles aren't hated enough by the right. Do you know how much they hated Nancy Pelosi? They couldn't fucking stand her. There was clip after clip after clip. Why? Because she was powerful. And she got under their skin and she whipped votes. And I hated Mitch McConnell.

I couldn't stand him. Why? Because he was an effective minority leader. And our opposition doesn't. hate our leaders enough. So what can you speak about what the Senate is trying to do right now and the impotent Democratic leadership, a two-part question? Yeah. So what's so important, and you've said this over and over on the show, and so why I love watching it, is that we need the people to be the opposition and get our party to catch up. And part of my job is to get out

there with the people and tell them, we need you. And then also on the inside of my day job, get folks to catch up. And that's why the Congressional Progressive Caucus that I'm proud to chair, but just be a part, once part of, was the first and only big caucus in Congress that said, one, we should be voting against this DHS funding bill, period. And two, that the extra billions of dollars that have already gone in to Trump's ICE force need to get pulled out. And we need to go say that should be going out to make sure your child care costs come down, to build more housing in this country, to make sure your health care costs that just got jacked up, get pushed back down. And I think that is what real strong opposition looks like. And we need to keep on ginning

that up. And honestly, the people you speaking out is starting to make that difference. On the Senate negotiations, here's what I think is really important and folks need to hear. You and I both know we live in these states, places like Oklahoma and Texas, where there are lots of folks that are significantly more conservative than you or me are a lot of folks watching at home on this. And they, even they, if you look at polling, if you just talk to folks on the street, are like, how is it that we're sending thousands of agents into a city and they're arresting people and not even following the Fourth Amendment, not even using warrants? I think it's right and good to say, okay, senators, I know that they probably aren't going to go as hard at the map as you or I would. But ask them, will you follow the Fourth Amendment? Will you follow court orders? Will you stop arresting and deporting U.S. citizens and show, expose that these Republican senators just do whatever Trump asks and are going to say no to the most basest.

of asks, expose them. What I'm worried about is that they have a show vote, cut some little deal, and then we don't even have the fight. And we need to have the fight so that we can expose that these Republican senators and Republican congresspeople won't even do the basic things that conservative voters right now think, well, I mean, that makes perfect sense. they should not wear a mask and wear a badge, that isn't going to fix everything. I don't want folks getting shot by somebody without a mask and wearing a badge. But I think that Republican senators saying no to the most basic of things is an important fight to have and to expose them. What I'm worried about if people, if we don't ramp up the pressure right now, is that we may not even have

that fight. Senator Tillis, Republican, was just ripping Christy Noam and Stephen Miller. And this is just something that I think is really interesting for us to talk about. We know that the way this government is treating all of us, this regime, you know they're treating each other equally as shitty inside this administration. We know they're toxic. And he has held this Trump 2.0 the first year together more so than he did initially. But fissures are happening right now. Somebody wants a head to roll. And so everybody's like, Christy Noam's going to go. And Christy Noam's like, listen up. MFers, if I go down, Stephen Miller told me to do this. And so we're starting to see fissures and you're seeing a Republican senator throw them both

under the bus. I think it's a very interesting time for us to continue to apply pressure whenever this cult shows a fissure, we need to pile on because I was stunned by, I mean, he basically was like, yeah, they're losers. Yeah. And then when Trump called him a loser, he said, oh, that's perfect. That makes me qualified to be Trump's secretary. Yes.

Yes. But what you're pointing out is really important here is Tom Tillis, that's senator, one of, it's not that he has an incredible backbone. It's that he's retiring. It is the folks that are true. They're only Republicans in sight, it seems like, in office that have some, some amount of backbone is likely because they're leaving or because they've already been fired or because they've already left. So that's why I think it is right now the time to ramp up

the pressure to impeach Cristinone. One, she's certainly committed her fair share of high crimes and misdemeanors and corruption. She's also, apart from all the terrible ice stuff she's done, the FEMA stuff she hasn't done is horrific. You know, I have people here in my county and Travis County that died in those July 4th floods. more in Kerrville, southwest of here. And she delayed search and rescue 72 hours. And there's a lot of reasons to fire her. And as you pointed out, once they're fired, once they're out, then they start talking about everybody else. And that's how this thing starts to unravel. We saw that in the first Trump administration. And so we fired Elon Musk. We're going to finish firing this Bovino guy.

and Christy Noem, you know, call your representative. Make sure they get on the resolution to impeach Christynella. God, I want Robert Garcia to drag her, drag her for filth in front of Congress and then get Stephen Miller thrown under the bus. I mean, I don't like watching people fail, but I'm going to tell you, I love watching these people fail because they are diabolical and horrible, which brings me to little five-year-old Liam Ramos. And this is the child listener and viewer that ice used as bait. He's just a five-year-old. And he had the cute little beanie on with the ears and the little tassels. And when my boys were little, I put them on little beanies like that.

And you see the ICE agents, you know, escorting him around. And he's trying to be brave and hold back tears. It's my understanding, Congressman, that you went to see, Liam. Is that correct? So I was down in San Antonio. Congressman Castro is the one that got the permission to go see him. It's very hard. They do everything they can to keep us out.

But I was with Congressman Castro right after he saw Liam. And he's really concerned about Liam's health, not doing well, very lethargic. If you could see, there's a photograph from yesterday that the congressman managed to get where Liam is laying in his father's arms. And so we're going to go check back up on him again and ask to see him. It's really just so important for people. I know it's uncomfortable, but everybody's got their friend or their family member at the dinner table who voted for Trump, but they didn't vote for this. I haven't met anybody that voted for this five-year-old. When they said he's going after the worst of the worst, he's got a five-year-old in a prison.

And then what I think is important for people to know is that he is just one of about 4,000 kids that have gone locked up in the last year. But this one had broken through, but there have been thousands. And so it is right now a time for us to reclaim our humanity, fight back. And there's a lot that makes me angry about this. But one part of it is, I just think back in the last year at the last year at the time, a number of pollsters and pundits who say Democrats shouldn't talk about immigration. Well, you know what? We can hold Trump accountable for his failures on the economy, but we should also be talking about this. We could do both.

I mean, this guy said he was going to try to keep us safe. And he's locking up five-year-olds and refusing to let them go free. So we're going to stay on this one, say free Liam Ramos, but then free all those children. Because this is just it is just on America. You bring up something that I think is really important, and it's at the epicenter of the Democratic Party right now. And it is all of the consultants and the polling and crowdsourcing morals. And it translates to the electorate, like, you know, you read a story, the Democrats were told not to use the language abolish eye. So the Democrats were told not to use this. That's the fucking problem.

The Democrats need to say, I want to. to abolish ICE, but I stand for immigration reform. And I want to abolish ICE because I fucking care about human beings. I don't like watching human beings get tortured and hidden and scared to go to school and having, you know, group setups for watch for innocent people that happen to have melanin in their skin. And, you know, we have always had immigrants in this country. We are built on immigration. And it's just so abhorrent to me sometimes. when I see not you, but some of the Democratic leadership crowdsourcing what they're supposed to fucking believe in and maybe say, I was told by pollsters not to say this, but I'm going to

say it anyway because I fucking stand for something. And I believe in that little boy. And I believe that all this does is damage that kid generationally and scares all other children and does nothing to make Americans safe. And I would even say this, Congressman, for some people, seeing their government treat little kids like this, it starts breaking something in them. Look at fucking Marco Rubio. He, I'm not saying he was ever like the greatest guy in the planet, but look at how he starts capitulating and appeasing to the moral rot. And so trickle that down all over the country. And when people appease this type of shit, that it breaks them. And we have to fight for the heart and soul of who we are and quit crowdsourcing what we believe in.

They're part of what they want people to do is they either want to make morals completely irrelevant and make you just totally numb and check out. And then they also want other groups of people who refuse to do that to feel afraid. And I'll tell you here in my community, there are. are so many people that every day, if not every few hours, feel afraid. Afraid their parents aren't going to come home from work, or afraid they're going to be separated from their spouse, or afraid about how their students are going to do, or what's going to happen to their own kids or to their neighbors, or even if you don't have any immigrants in your family or on your street, people who watch that video and see Renee Good and Alex

pretty dead in the street and worry that it could be somebody they love next. And I can't guarantee to people that feel afraid right now that everything's going to be okay. But I can guarantee you that what Trump and Stephen Miller and their cronies want is for that fear to paralyze you because they thrive in the darkness and the silence and the fear. So we need you to shout in that silence. We need you to rally and march through the dark because we at this moment, cannot be paralyzed by our fear and we cannot be numbed by this because that's exactly what they want and we're not going to let any pollsters or any talking heads come and make us think you know what just ignore the immorality of all of this there are people out there who just feel uninspired and

afraid and they need some of us some of us may be an elected office but a lot of folks watching at home saying we can't let them win because this is not the future that is right for this country, period, and stop. Congressman, thank you so much for your work. It's a difficult job at this time. And I really appreciate you standing in progressive values and your vision for where we need to move leadership and your vision as to where the party is going to head to where the Democrats are a party of the people by the people.

people for the people, whereas MAGA is the party of the billionaires, by the billionaires, and for the billionaires. Thank you for being so clear-eyed and having so much moral clarity. This is really tough stuff. And please keep us updated on Little Liam and a shout out to all people that have been kidnapped by this government and are experiencing generational trauma right now, because this cannot be who we are. Congressman, thank you. Thank you. I would be amiss if I don't mention one more time to folks watching. There's something you can do right now, today, start organizing on those senators because we can save lives and start making a difference now. Won't get us everything we want.

But if we don't pick this fight these next three days, that's just not acceptable. So we need your help. Thanks so much for having me on, Jennifer. Thank you, Congressman. I'll see you soon.