Rand Paul’s Fairweather Libertarianism Rears Its Head As He Criticizes DHS Officials
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) broke with most of his Republican peers on Thursday, using his chairmanship of the Senate Homeland Security Committee to pressure immigration officials over violent agent behavior.
He and Ranking Member Gary Peters (D-MI) teamed up to ask Acting ICE Chief Todd Lyons and Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott questions about the agents’ use of force as they played stop-motion video of the killing of Alex Pretti. It was an unusual bipartisan display, indicative of Paul’s willingness, at least for now, to resist the Trump administration’s insistence on full-throated support for the agents.
“Because you immediately came to conclusions — not you, but people within the government — that you immediately concluded that he was a terrorist and a murderer, people don’t believe that this will be an honest investigation,” Paul told agency leaders. He added that there must be “repercussions,” and that “some of these things are inexcusable.”
Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH) weighed in during Paul’s opening response, applauding agency leaders for their reluctance to answer specific questions about the use of force in Pretti’s killing, and insisting that the officers involved have constitutional protections that must be respected.
Just after Pretti’s murder in late January, the public outcry reached such a fever pitch that even some MAGA Republicans expressed unease and called for an investigation. Thursday’s Senate hearing, as well as the House hearing earlier in the week, were called back-to-back.
But over the next two weeks, as the news cycle progressed, congressional Republicans seemed less inclined to criticize the agencies. At Tuesday’s House hearing, the only Republicans who even mildly criticized the officers’ behavior were front-line members sitting in swivel chairs.
Paul also stood out Thursday, as his Republican colleagues largely used their time to condemn protesters.
“It is clearly evident that public trust has been lost,” Paul said. “To restore trust in ICE and Border Patrol, they must admit their mistakes, be honest and upfront with their rules of engagement, and commit to reform.”
The witnesses, however, made only minimal concessions about their agents’ behavior during the hearing, which took place the same day that border czar Tom Homan announced that the administration was ending the Minnesota push. When Senator Andy Kim (D-New Jersey) pressed what he learned from Minneapolis, the ICE chief did not cite the murders of two American citizens.
“People can go out and protest, but why are we going to encourage individuals to go out and inconvenience themselves and put themselves in harm’s way? I think that’s the lesson we can learn from this,” he said.
