WASHINGTON – Rep. Greg Stanton joined the effort to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Tuesday as outrage mounted in Congress over two killings this month by federal immigration officers in Minneapolis.
“This isn’t about policy. It’s about whether officials can ignore the Constitution and place themselves above the law,” the Phoenix Democrat said in a statement announcing his support for removing Noem. “Impeachment exists for exactly this reason, and I will vote for it.”
As of Tuesday night, 162 of the 213 House Democrats had co-sponsored the impeachment resolution, according to the office of Rep. Robin Kelly, D-Ill. That includes Stanton and the other two from Arizona, Reps. Adelita Grijalva of Tucson and Yassamin Ansari of Phoenix.
Kelly filed the resolution Jan. 14, one week after a federal immigration agent killed Minneapolis resident Renee Nicole Good.
Impeachment requires a simple majority in the House, where Republicans hold 218 seats, and a two-thirds vote in the Senate, where Republicans hold a 53-47 majority.
Calls for Noem’s ouster have intensified since Saturday, when Border Patrol officers shot and killed a second Minneapolis resident, ICU nurse Alex Pretti.
On Tuesday, Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina became the first Senate Republican to call for President Donald Trump to fire Noem.
“What she’s done in Minnesota should be disqualifying,” Tillis told reporters at the Capitol. “It’s just amateurish. It’s terrible. It’s making the president look bad.”
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, also called for Noem’s ouster on Tuesday, as did Sen. John Fetterman, D-Penn., who has sided with Trump more often than most Democratic colleagues. He called Noem “grossly incompetent.”
Pretti was using his cellphone to record officers when one of them shoved a protester to the ground. When Pretti tried to protect the woman, officers tackled him and sprayed a chemical irritant in his face.
Some federal officials alleged that Pretti, who had a concealed gun permit, had threatened the officers. But videos of the incident show that he never reached for the gun and was disarmed and pinned when officers shot him.
Demands for tougher oversight of immigration enforcement efforts quickly escalated since the killing.
House Homeland Security Chair Andrew Garbarino, R-N.Y., announced a hearing Feb. 10 at which top officials from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Border Patrol will testify.
“Transparency and communication are needed to turn the temperature down,” he said in a statement.
The proposed articles of impeachment accuse Noem of violating federal law and constitutional protections by ordering warrantless arrests, detention of U.S. citizens, and the use of excessive force. She is also accused of misusing $200 million for an ICE recruitment ad campaign.
The resolution cites the killing of Good along with the regular use of masked agents and military tactics.
The resolution also references an October incident in Chicago when agents “used tear gas on children having a Halloween parade.” DHS acknowledged the use of “crowd control measures,” saying officers feared for their safety.
The resolution also accuses Noem of violating federal law by preventing members of Congress from entering immigration detention facilities – a complaint from Ansari, among other House Democrats.
Noem has overseen the implementation of Trump’s aggressive deportation agenda, and she has forcefully defended the use of deadly force in the two Minneapolis incidents.
She justified Pretti’s killing by asserting that he had threatened the officers with a gun – a claim contradicted by all videos of the encounter.
She described Good’s actions as “domestic terrorism,” asserting – as did Trump and others in the administration – that Good tried to run over the agent before he shot her. That, too, is contradicted by videos.
For more stories from Cronkite News, visit cronkitenews.azpbs.org.
