Fetterman Once Agreed ICE Was an ‘American Gestapo.’ Under Trump 2.0, He’s Praising the Agency
By Stephen Prager | Common Dreams on Comments Off on Fetterman Once Agreed ICE Was an ‘American Gestapo.’ Under Trump 2.0, He’s Praising the Agency
As ICE has sent masked agents to round up mostly innocent people, the Democratic senator from Pennsylvania said they “are just doing their job.”
U.S. Sen. John Fetterman’s strange lurch to the right continued this week as he jumped in to defend Immigration and Customs Enforcement amid criticisms about its lawless and authoritarian behavior.
ICE’s indiscriminate roundups have shifted into overdrive recently as part of President Donald Trump’s “mass deportation” crusade, resulting in video after disturbing video of unidentified masked agents brutalizing and detaining migrants, the majority of whom have no criminal records.
On Thursday, ICE launched another massive raid on two farms in Southern California, which was met with protests by hundreds of community members. Federal officers responded by beating protesters and assaulting them with tear gas, including children.
Many Democrats have at least criticized the agency’s unprecedented tactics. Last month, Democratic House members introduced the “No Secret Police Act,” which would require agents to identify themselves when arresting people. Many also criticized the agency’s aggressive display on Thursday.
But not Fetterman (D-Penn.), who issued a full-throated defense of the agency in a post on X.
“ICE performs an important job for our country,” Fetterman said. “Any calls to abolish ICE are inappropriate and outrageous.”
Earlier in the week, after an ICE detention facility was allegedly ambushed by armed attackers, Fetterman told Fox News that it was “absolutely unacceptable. Terrible. Awful.”
“ICE agents are just doing their job, and I fully support that,” he added. “For me and people in my party, you know, to abolish it or treat them as criminals or anything, that’s inappropriate and outrageous. ICE performs an important, an important job for our nation.”
“He’s right, he’s right,” the president said of the Pennsylvania Democrat.
Fetterman responded with glee, telling The Daily Mail that getting praise from Trump made his Fox News-watching parents “proud.”
Critics have noted the stark change in rhetoric for Fetterman, who once embraced various progressive policies and campaigned fiercely against Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric.
Nick Field, a writer for The Penn-Capital Star, posted an excerpt from an interview in 2018 in which Fetterman—then the mayor of Braddock, Pennsylvania—agreed with a host who said ICE was “an American Gestapo.”
“I agree,” Fetterman said. “It’s unconscionable. I don’t know how they sleep at night. I really don’t.”
“These are all law-abiding citizens,” Fetterman said about undocumented immigrants rounded up by ICE. “These are people that want a better life for themselves, and in the process, a better life and a more rich society for us all. And to try to demonize them or try to turn them into some kind of problem, that this is what’s wrong with America, it’s evil.”
Others pointed out that Fetterman’s own wife, Gisele, was herself an undocumented immigrant from Brazil. She’s now a U.S. citizen.
Annie Wu Henry, who ran the social media accounts for Fetterman’s 2022 Senate run, and has since apologized for her involvement in his election, posted a campaign video in which he spoke about his wife’s immigration status.
“I was asked, ‘Your wife’s family broke the law, what do you think of that?'” Fetterman said in the video. “I said, ‘Well I’m so grateful that they did because if they didn’t have the courage to take that step I wouldn’t have the three beautiful children that I have today.'”
Fetterman also drew the ire of his opponent in the 2022 Democratic primary, former Rep. Connor Lamb (D-Penn.). When they faced off three years ago, Lamb was ironically considered the more conservative of the two. But on Thursday, he lit into Fetterman, who called for ICE to “round up and deport the criminals.”
According to immigration data from June 29, 71% of the people currently in ICE detention have not been convicted of any crimes. Most of those who have were only convicted of minor offenses, like traffic violations.
“Hey [Senator Fetterman], they didn’t give ICE more money than the Marine Corps and all other law enforcement to just go after criminals,” Lamb retorted, referring to the massive increases to ICE funding in the GOP’s recent megabill. “You aren’t fooling us into thinking that is what’s going on.”
