TRANSCRIPT: At Pen And Pad, Leader Schumer Speaks About Democrats’ Fight For Commonsense Reforms To Rein In ICE And End The Violence

Washington, D.C. - Today, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) held a pen and pad to discuss Democrats' proposal for commonsense reforms to rein in ICE and end violence in communities across America. Below are Senator Schumer's remarks:

Leader Schumer: Okay, so we all know what's going on in our cities. There is chaos. There is just, they're just out of control, and we see the damage that's been done. We see people being beaten. We see people without any warrants taken off the streets and put in these dark chambers. They don't even have phones. We've even seen two Americans killed. There is chaos, and there is a rogue force, ICE, that is rampaging through these cities and causing chaos. There are huge amounts of damage. We, Democrats, have heard the cry of the American people: fix this. And it's not just from Minneapolis or Los Angeles or Chicago or Maine. It's all over the country. Ninety percent of Americans have seen the videos of what's going on, and they say, "this is not America." This is not the country we were raised in. This is not the country we love. We have to change it.

So, we, Democrats, have put together a commonsense group of proposals, based on what police officers have done in every part of the country, whether it be a local police department, a sheriff's department, or even the previous federal police departments. And we have said a bunch of different things. You've seen them all, but we put it out late last night, so I'll just repeat them quickly. Three basic objectives.

One - stop these roving patrols. You can't just arrive somewhere, pick someone up with no warrant, no reason, throw them in a jail, throw them in a dark space without any reason. We need to say that we need to have warrants. That's part of America. You can't just bang on a door and invade someone's home without a warrant.

Second - we've also said that there should be places where these ICE agents can't go. Sensitive places like schools, like churches, election places, because we're worried they'll use this against the election. And we also said there should be no racial profiling as well. The second area is enforcement and accountability. They have to coordinate with the states. They have to have a use of force plan that states use and other states use, there has to be some guidelines for use of force. They have to be allowed to be sued. There has to be oversight from independent agencies and from state and local governments.

And finally - we have to have identity. We don't want - we want cameras and we want no masks. No masks, period. Every police officer should be identified. So those are the three areas we want. Okay, three basic areas.

And we will today, the Appropriations Committees on Democratic and Republican sides are talking. We will be submitting legislative language, some legislative language to them as early as this afternoon. The Republicans have to get their act together. Different people say different things. Barrasso calls it "radical." Katie Britt says it's "political." Thune said it was "unrealistic" and "unserious." They've got to get their act together. Our act is together. We can't get anything done until we know what they want. Okay. You know what we want. Hakeem [Jeffries] and I are united. Our whole caucuses are united. We've had a whole series of meetings. And so, we think this is a very, very serious problem. We have to change it. And it's the onus is on the Republicans now to show us what they're for and what they're not for.

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Reporter: Leader Schumer. Senator Britt, Senator Thune all say that you guys just haven't come to them, to meet with them. Like, you haven't negotiated with them. Have you reached out to them to talk to them?

Schumer: Ask the Republicans. The Republicans don't have their act together, number one. It's on them. And second, our Appropriations Committees are talking.

Reporter: No, but I mean, have you talked, like, have you talked to - have you gotten one-on-one with Thune? They say you need to talk to the White House.

Schumer: The Appropriations Committee is the place where there are negotiations going on. And, again, nothing will get done until we know what the Republicans are for. Okay? They have to get their act together. We have. We spent three days diligently, seriously coming up with a comprehensive, commonsense plan that police departments throughout the country use. Where are they?

Reporter: Republican senators seem to want some sort of changes to sanctuary city policies nationwide in order to agree to some larger deal.

Schumer: That shows how unserious they are.

Reporter: That's a non-starter?

Schumer: That's bringing in a totally different issue.

Reporter: Just to clarify, though, because I believe last week you said you and Leader Thune would take the lead on negotiations, so at some point do you expect-

Schumer: I always said it would be myself and Patty Murray because the appropriations, this appropriations bill, and the appropriations are together. Now Murray and [Susan] Collins and the appropriators are talking to each other on a regular basis.

Reporter: Thank you, Leader Schumer. Short of, you know, an agreement to pass the DHS funding bill with some changes, is there a world in which Democrats provide the votes for another CR to keep DHS open as negotiations continue?

Schumer: Look, the bottom line is we need a proposal that reins in ICE, number one. Number two, ends the violence. No secret police. No, you know - everyone's got to be totally identified. No masks for anybody. We need to have warrants. We need to have supervision. Those are the things that we need, okay? And if Republicans can't go along with that, they shouldn't count on our votes.

Reporter: Leader Schumer, your proposal includes things like requiring local authorities to give their consent for large-scale operations like the sensitive locations, you talked about that. So how is it that sanctuary policies don't apply, because aren't those sanctuary policies? Why is there that -

Schumer: The sanctuary cities bill is a totally different bill. This is about public safety.

Reporter: But those provisions are about sanctuary policies -

Schumer: No, those are about-we are talking about public safety. That's an immigration bill. They want to discuss that. That should not be, that's going to drag down this bill, and the people who propose that don't want any bill to pass.

Reporter: Chris Murphy says that he doesn't know if the White House or the appropriators are doing it. Republicans say they don't know who to come to. Who exactly on the Republican side are you supposed to be leading with? Leader Thune, the White House?

Schumer: Whoever, look, they have different people going in different directions. They've got to get their act together; show us this is who to negotiate with. At the moment, it's the Appropriations Committees talking to each other. But you've had other people on the Republican side, saying different things. Hakeem and I are doing this together. You don't see us saying different things. You don't even see members - our caucuses are so overwhelmingly united. You know why? We feel the pain of the American people seeing the chaos on the streets, seeing these rogue police forces around, seeing masked men and women taking advantage of people and not having any accountability or responsibility.

Reporter: Is there any concern that if a spending deal is reached based on these demands that you are making that there's going to be a shutdown -

Schumer: As I said, the bottom line is our Republican colleagues must come to us and work on proposals that rein in ICE and end the violence. And as I said a minute ago, if they're unwilling to do that, we put those things in, they can't count on our votes.

Reporter: What if you need more time, sir? What if you just simply need, if this -

Schumer: We don't need - listen, we have legislative language. I have seen far more complicated pieces of legislation resolved in a day or two. And if we resolve it over the next few days, given that we've said they've got to get their act together, we can then get this thing done by the deadline easily. If they want to do it, they can do it. If they want to delay or try to set up these fake procedural morasses, it'll be on them not to do it.

Reporter: We've heard the proposal of potentially splitting ICE off and the rest of the funding would allow TSA and the Coast Guard to be funded. Is that something you would be open to?

Schumer: Well, look, the bottom line is that TSA is very important. And there's talk in our caucus of how to continue TSA.

Reporter: When you say that they need to come to you, do you mean that Thune needs to come to you? The White House needs to come to you?

Schumer: They need to get their act together. They're all over the lot and we don't know what they're for. They know exactly what we're for. You can't negotiate if the other side doesn't have any clear guidelines and just says, well, let's sit down and talk.

Reporter: Leader Schumer, given the front-loading of DHS funding and the Big Beautiful Bill Act and some of the slush funds that exist in DOD, is DHS, at this point, shutdown proof?

Schumer: The bottom line is what we have proposed in our proposal, you do propose things in your proposals, I guess, is that the guidelines, the restrictions, the reining in of ICE that we will put in the bill will apply to all of the ICE money and border security money. Whether it comes - they have this ridiculous idea that if the money comes from one place, you treat it one way and if the money comes from the other place, you treat it the other way. Oh, so some people are going to have masks, and some are not and we're supposed to find out where the funding came from? It makes no sense. The rules and guidelines we propose, this has broad support in our caucus. And you'd be amazed how passionate our caucus is and how united our caucus is on this issue. But this has broad support in our caucus that these guidelines have to apply across the board, not just the one.

Reporter: Why did you expand the number of demands from three to ten?

Schumer: We did not. No. The bottom line - we had three basic objectives, and from the beginning we listed three or four things to accomplish those objectives in each one. We have not expanded it.

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