WASHINGTON – Senator Susan Collins, R-Me., Ranking Member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, on Thursday called upon Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to immediately look into concerns raised by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.
The officers’ complaints, raised through their union, follow recent disclosure of a draft U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services memo that discussed ways to achieve immigration reform without legislation.
Senator Collins’ statement follows:
“The issues raised by ICE officers are of great concern to me,” said Senator Collins. “Compounding these allegations is the draft U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services memo that recently became public. That memo indicates that the Department of Homeland Security is considering how to avoid removing illegally present individuals from the country as a way of administratively achieving ‘meaningful immigration reform absent legislative action.’
“These two developments – the memo and the concerns articulated by ICE employees through their union – raise serious questions in my mind about the Department’s commitment to enforcing the nation’s immigration laws. As a result, I call upon Secretary Janet Napolitano to look into both of these issues immediately. Getting to the bottom of this discord is critical to the success of our nation’s immigration enforcement efforts.”