LISTEN: Rep. Min Slams Trump Administration For Deprioritizing Prosecutions of Violent Criminals

Washington, D.C. — Last night, Representative Dave Min (CA-47) joined Sirius XM’s The Julie Mason Show where he shared his new letter blasting the Trump administration for taking essential resources away from federal agencies tasked with targeting violent drug traffickers, gang members, and sex offenders to instead perform routine immigration sweeps. 

Listen to the segment here. 

On Rep. Min’s Letter on the Trump Administration:

“Following some news reports that reported that the Trump administration had seen, record low number of prosecutions and investigations in a lot of the areas that federal law enforcement normally operates in things like human trafficking, drug trafficking, arms trafficking, we wanted to know what was going on. So we wrote a letter, asking, you know, to what degree this was true. If they could quantify any of that. 

This is a real concern to the communities I represent. And, you know, we've seen what they prioritize. They're going after day laborers at Home Depots. They're separating families. They're primarily going after [...] nonviolent immigrants, who don't pose any kind of threat of crime. But what does that mean for when you take people off of DHS or the FBI or ATF? What does that mean for everything else? And I think it means that we are going to see an explosion in the types of crime that actually matter to the people I represent.”

On FBI Agents Being Taken from their Duties to Conduct Immigration Raids:

“You have DHS, CBP, FBI, you have National Guard work, deploying a massive amount of resources in, in streets in places like Chicago and LA. And we’ve seen who they're going after. They're going after, again, nonviolent immigrants. Some of them are not even immigrants. They're going after citizens as well, just because they have the wrong skin color or have the wrong type of job. We've also seen that a lot of these folks assault people, protesters. So this is outrageous what's happening right now. But it has real implications, for our public safety, the FBI, ATF, they're supposed to be keeping us safe from real violent crime. And let's remember, Donald Trump ran on a platform of going after violent criminals, of going after international gangs. And instead, what we've seen is them going after people at Home Depot, like, what is this about? 

On Deprioritizing Law and Order:

“Meanwhile, we're giving $40 billion to Argentina because they have a right wing dictator wannabe in charge. And we are just not prioritizing law and order. And I represent a community that's very pro law and order. They're very concerned about public safety. We've had a rash of home burglaries. But instead of, again, the FBI working on that, what we've seen is FBI agents being deployed for immigration enforcement purposes. 

And, you know, maybe I'd have a different view of those immigration enforcement where actions were targeted around, you know, international gangs or on violent criminals. But that does not seem to be the case right now. [...] It's just horrible. It's immoral, and it is un-American.”

###