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These Mass. congressmen signed a resolution thanking ICE for ‘protecting the homeland.’ Here’s why.
A resolution denouncing the antisemitic attack in Colorado also contained language showing support for ICE agents.
Some Democratic members of Congress from Massachusetts are receiving backlash after signing on to a resolution this week that condemns the recent antisemitic attack in Colorado but also contains language expressing “gratitude” to ICE agents.
The House passed the resolution Monday with 280 votes in favor and 113 against. Many of the “yea” votes came from Republicans, but 75 Democrats also got on board. This includes Reps. Jake Auchincloss, Bill Keating, Stephen Lynch, Seth Moulton, and Richard Neal of Massachusetts.
Most of the text of the resolution concerns the attack that occurred in Boulder last month. An Egyptian national stands accused of throwing molotov cocktails at people who were demonstrating for the release of Israeli hostages. Multiple people were injured. Authorities say that the suspect has been living in the U.S. illegally, and ICE agents detained his wife and five children after the attack.
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Lawmakers used the resolution to denounce the attack on peaceful protesters. The resolution also contains language affirming that “free and open communication” between local and federal authorities “remains the bedrock of public safety and is necessary in preventing terrorist attacks.”
Finally, the resolution “expresses gratitude to law enforcement officers, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel, for protecting the homeland.”
The Trump administration is working to crack down on undocumented immigrants, even those without criminal records. As White House officials demand agents arrest 3,000 a day, ICE agents are conducting new workplace raids and staking out courthouses to arrest people showing up for their scheduled immigration hearings. Many of the agents regularly operate without identification clearly visible and with their faces hidden behind masks, stoking fear in many communities. The unfolding events in Los Angeles appear poised to heighten tensions even more across the country.
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So many Democratic voters could have a problem with their party’s lawmakers expressing gratitude to ICE, even in the context of this resolution. Jonathan Cohn, political director for the group Progressive Massachusetts, posted the names of the Democrats who supported the resolution on social media and criticized them on his personal blog. His post was viewed around 550,000 times and garnered more than 1,000 “likes.” Some elected officials from outside Massachusetts joined Cohn in decrying the votes.
Cohn told Boston.com that ICE is “terrorizing” communities across Massachusetts and “acting in service of a hateful vision from Donald Trump and his desire for a more repressive, more divided country.”
He characterized the vote on this resolution as a “dishonest trap” set by congressional Republicans and another example of them wanting to “weaponize” concerns about antisemitism. He pointed to another resolution that condemned the Boulder attack without any language referencing ICE. It was overwhelmingly passed 7 minutes later, Cohn said.
“You do not need to praise ICE in order to condemn the recent attack and tragedy in Boulder,” he said. “The Democrats who voted with Republicans on HRES488 should start actually listening to their constituents about what safety means and focus on fighting the cruelty, chaos, corruption, and constitutional crisis of the Trump administration, not whitewashing what ICE is doing.”
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Moulton offered an explanation for his vote when contacted by Boston.com Wednesday, saying that it was important to speak out against hateful acts like the Boulder attack.
“The horrible attack in Boulder against peaceful residents, including a Holocaust survivor, who gathered to support the hostages in Gaza is appalling and cannot be condemned loudly enough,” Moulton said.
He also acknowledged the backlash over the ICE language.
“It is important to recognize that there rarely exists a bill or resolution that I vote for because I agree with every single word in it. At the end of the day, I cast my vote for H. Res 488 because I believe that it is critical to loudly condemn antisemitic terror, which was the overarching purpose of this resolution,” Moulton added.
He vowed to continue to oppose Trump’s efforts to “weaponize ICE” while also promising to speak out against antisemitism. Democrats, Moulton said, need to do both.
Auchincloss, Moulton, and Lynch have all been outspoken in recent days about their opposition to how the federal government is handling unrest in Los Angeles that was sparked by anti-ICE protests.
A spokesperson for Keating said that he remains committed to fighting antisemitism and that the resolution included “filler language” that “does not negate the intended purpose to call out antisemitic attacks.”
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“The real issue is that Republicans are shamelessly using the Jewish community and challenges facing them as propaganda for unpopular immigration actions. Congressman Keating remains opposed to the tactics currently employed by ICE that have resulted in violent ‘collateral arrests’ and have left communities gripped by fear – and he has taken this opposition directly to the Trump Administration on multiple occasions,” the spokesperson for Keating said.
Auchincloss, Lynch, and Neal did not return requests for comment Wednesday.
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