Acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Todd Lyons complained in his opening statement before the House Committee on Homeland Security Tuesday morning about people referring to ICE agents as “the Gestapo” and “the secret police,” saying the rhetoric unfairly encourages threats against those agents.
Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) offered Lyons some revolutionary advice.
“People are simply making valid observations about your tactics, which are un-American and outright fascist,” he said.
“I have a simple suggestion,” he continued: “If you don’t want to be called a fascist regime or a secret police, then stop acting like one.”
Goldman pointed out in earlier dialogue with Lyons that ICE is regularly stopping “nonwhite people and those who look like immigrants to ask for their papers” — a hallmark of fascist regimes in the 20th century.
