Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) on Wednesday hit President Trump over what he called “photo op” immigration raids following the president’s flurry of immigration orders.
“I think an [Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)] raid, to me anyway, when you’re goin’ into a school or in a community, you do it very publicly with cameras, you’re lookin’ for a photo op … you’re looking to intimidate people,” Kelly said.
The “POLITICO’s Playbook: First 100 Days: Immigration” event comments from Kelly follow Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem going alongside agents working on an immigration enforcement operation in New York City Tuesday morning. The newly confirmed DHS secretary shared a video of the operation the same day that showed law enforcement taking away a man in an undisclosed location in the city.
“Enforcement operation in NYC. Criminal alien with kidnapping, assault & burglary charges is now in custody – thanks to @ICE,” Noem said in a Tuesday morning post on the social media platform X alongside the video. “Dirtbags like this will continue to be removed from our streets.”
Kelly said Wednesday that “ICE raids into schools, scaring kids, when the plan was to go … look for criminals, I think this is … kinda flippin’ the script on the … on the American public.”
Trump made immigration central to his 2024 presidential bid, and members of his administration attempted to intensely tout any action taken on the matter during his first few days in office.
A top Department of Justice (DOJ) official and President Trump’s “border czar” were recently in Chicago overseeing “immigration enforcement efforts,” according to officials.
On Sunday, the Drug Enforcement Agency’s (DEA) Chicago division posted photos of “border czar” Tom Homan and acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove on social media. Bove and Homan, according to text that accompanied one of the photos, were at “an operational pre-briefing in Chicago on Sunday.”
The Hill has reached out to ICE and the White House for comment.
