Kevin McAleenan says DHS didn’t consider postponing ICE raids just because of shootings as Democrats blame Donald Trump’s rhetoric against immigrants for El Paso massacre
- Acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan said the shootings last weekend did not make the agency reconsider planned raids
- McAleenan said the raids were ‘planned and in motion’ when the shootings took place
- Two separate mass shootings that resulted in a combined 31 deaths rocked the nation last week
- The alleged shooter in El Paso, Texas posted an anti-immigration manifesto and told police it was his goal to kill as many Mexicans as possible in the shootings
- Many in the Hispanic community said they feared for their lives after the shootings and were scared they would be targeted next
Kevin McAleenan, the acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, said Sunday he did not consider delaying planned raids in Mississippi this week in light of the two mass shootings last weekend.
When asked on NBC if DHS thought about postponing the raids because of fear in the Hispanic communities after the shootings, McAleenan said they were already underway and could not be changed.
‘These are enforcement operations that are part of their daily cycle. Something like this has been planned for over a year,’ McAleenan said. ‘This is a criminal investigation with 14 federal warrants issued by a judge, and ICE had to follow through on it. It was already planned and in motion.’
The question was prompted after outcry from the Hispanic community, who said they were fearful of their lives because the alleged shooter in El Paso told police his goal was to kill as many Mexicans as possible.
Acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan said the department did not consider postponing ICE raids in the wake of two mass shootings
‘It was already planned and in motion,’ McAleenan said as the Hispanic community expressed they were fearful they would be targeted after an alleged shooter in El Paso, Texas told police he wanted to kill as many Mexicans as possible
Many Democrats blamed the two shooting that killed 31 people over the weekend on Donald Trump’s rhetoric and hardline immigration administration
The suspect, 21-year-old Patrick Crusius, posted a manifesto online about a half-hour before opening fire at the El Paso Walmart. He included several anti-immigrant sentiments that some Democrats say could have been motivated by Donald Trump’s rhetoric and his hardline immigration administration.
Some 2020 presidential contenders said the president has facilitated an environment in the country where the two shooters over the weekend feel emboldened to carry out violence. They called Trump a ‘racist’ and ‘white nationalist.’
The Hispanic community said they were living in fear because they felt they were being targeted or could be targeted by other shooters.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents raided seven food processing plants in Mississippi on Wednesday where they arrested and detained about 700 workers.
The raids occurred a few days after the shootings and the same Day Trump visited El Paso and Dayton, Ohio to meet with first responders, law enforcement and victims of the massacres.
So far 300 of the 700 undocumented workers who were detained were released on ‘humanitarian grounds.’
On Wednesday, just days after the shootings, Immigration and Customs Enforcement conducted raids on seven food processing facilities in Mississippi. They arrested 700 workers
In the days following the raids, 300 of the 700 detained were released ‘on humanitarian grounds’
‘Approximately 30 detained aliens were released yesterday on humanitarian grounds at the individual sites where they were initially encountered,’ a Friday press statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of Mississippi said.
‘Another 270 detained aliens were released after being processed by HSI at the National Guard base in Pearl and returned to the place where they were originally encountered,’ the statement continued.
Backlash ensued after the raids, both with the timing and the failure of DHS to notify Child Protective Services of the plans so it made it difficult for the agency to take care of the kids whose parents were detained.
Health and Human Services, the agency that takes in unaccompanied migrant children, was also not notified of the raid.
McAleenan also told NBC’s Chuck Todd that the attack was on a community that is comprised of a lot of DHS families.
‘Let me start with the community in El Paso: That’s our community. That’s a Department of Homeland Security community,’ McAleenan said of the mass shooting. ‘There’s 4,000 families there protecting that border. They’re largely Hispanic, they’re primarily Hispanic.’
‘So this was an attack in El Paso on us, on our community,’ he continued. ‘And it’s something we responded to operationally, and then we need to respond to to be clear about what happened here. It was hate, it was domestic terrorism and it’s our responsibility to do more to address it.’