Immigration and Customs Enforcement should be subject to “reasonable” reforms, U.S. Sen. John Curtis said.
“I think there’s some really low-hanging fruit that we can agree to,” Curtis, a Republican, said Thursday during a news conference at the Utah Capitol. Very few Americans would say ICE’s operations have gone perfectly, he said, adding “and I will certainly not say that.”
Amidst a hiring push, ICE has shortened the training it offers new agents. The U.S. senator thinks initial reforms should focus on better training and recruitment.
“How are we training these people? How many days?” Curtis asked. “Are we just hiring people so quickly and throwing them out there?”
The former Provo mayor also mentioned the killing of Renée Good by federal agents in Minneapolis last month, when an ICE officer stood in front of Good’s vehicle.
“An officer should never stand in front of an automobile,” Curtis said. “We have a failed training situation.”
Asked whether he feels that ICE officers should be banned from wearing face coverings — a reform Democrats have pushed for both in Congress and in the Utah Legislature — Curtis said no.
“Under normal circumstances, we would not want our law enforcement wearing masks,” Curtis said. But ICE agents and their families, he argued, are at risk of being doxed and having their personal information posted online.
“This is not just as clean cut as ‘don’t wear a mask,’” Curtis said. “If we have the appropriate penalties for [doxing], we can have that conversation.”
Curtis has been critical of President Donald Trump’s Department of Homeland Security. Following the shooting of Alex Pretti by federal agents in Minneapolis last month, Curtis called for DHS Secretary Kristi Noem to testify in front of Congress.
That the agency did not immediately engage in an independent investigation of the shooting, Curtis said, “was a big mistake.”
“It’s very clear to me that that’s what should have happened and that it didn’t was a big mistake, and I think will forever undermine trust that she has with the American people,” the senator said. “Now, at this point, it is up to the president to see if that’s salvageable, but I do think a lot of trust was lost [and] trust is very hard to rebuild.”
But asked whether he thinks Noem should resign, Curtis would not go so far, calling it a “nuanced line.”
Curtis’s news conference in Salt Lake City comes amid ongoing reporting about DHS looking to buy a warehouse to use as an ICE detention center in the city and during a partial government shutdown continues where Congress debates funding for the agency.
The senator has voted with his caucus in favor of funding DHS and said he is concerned the shutdown could cause “pain points” for the Transportation Security Administration and Federal Emergency Management Agency.
“One of the reasons I don’t like shutdowns is it punishes the wrong people,” Curtis said. “Somehow, we need to shift that pain point to members of Congress.”
As far as a possible ICE detention center in Utah, however, Curtis said he had no information.