Democrat Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA) has accused President Donald Trump of seeking to expand Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) into an “army.”
According to Schiff, Trump is building an ICE “army” to begin “policing American streets.”
Schiff made the claims during an interview on MS NOW’s “The Last Word.”
The anti-Trump senator did not provide any evidence for the allegations.
Schiff said, “We wanted to go through DHS contracting records and document just how much they’re spending to militarize this new, you know, effectively new police forces, palace guard of the presidents that is wreaking such havoc in our cities.
“And we found dramatic increases in spending on weapons.
“As you said, ICE agents will be equipped with now 3 to 4 times the amount of weapons as the previous year.
“Customs and Border Protection doubling their expenditure on the same.”
He added, “I think what we’re seeing is a dangerous combination of a much more heavily armed immigration, law enforcement, complex.
“At the same time, we heard whistleblower testimony this week that they’ve cut the training for these new ICE agents.
“And they’re getting inadequate training on when to use these weapons and how to use these weapons.
“That is a really dangerous mix,” Schiff continued.
“And we wanted to sound the alarm with this report that we’re seeing the emergence of a kind of law enforcement or immigration enforcement industrial complex, because it’s not just the weapons.
“We’re seeing dramatic increases in expenditures on detention centers.
“They want to build around the country.
“And this is a way of gathering its own momentum.
“And we need to be aware of what’s happening, that we’re building a not small army now, that’s going to be policing American streets.”
WATCH:
Host Laurence O’Donnell did not ask Schiff for evidence to support the claims.
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