Latest news with #Congresswomen
Axios
10-05-2025
- Politics
- Axios
Trump admin eyes arrests for House Dems over ICE incident
Democratic members of Congress who were part of a scuffle with law enforcement officers at an ICE facility in New Jersey may face arrests, the Department of Homeland Security confirmed to Axios Saturday. Why it matters: It would be a major escalation in the Trump administration's arrests of politicians and other public servants, including the mayor of Newark and a judge in Milwaukee. DHS is accusing the House Democrats of assaulting law enforcement. The lawmakers say they were the ones who were assaulted. The lawmakers involved in the incident: Reps. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-N.J.), Rob Menendez (D-N.J.) and LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.). What they're saying: DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a CNN interview on Saturday morning that "there will likely be more arrests coming." "We actually have body camera footage of these members of Congress assaulting these ICE enforcement officers, including body slamming a female ICE officer," she added. McLaughlin said there is an "ongoing investigation" and that arresting the lawmakers is "definitely on the table." She confirmed in a text message to Axios that the House Democrats may be arrested. The other side: "Threatening to arrest Members of Congress for exercising their lawful oversight authority is another example of this administration abusing its power to try to intimidate anyone to stands up to them," said a spokesperson for Watson Coleman. The spokesperson said their office has "reviewed the body came footage" and that it proves "ICE agents put their hands on Members of Congress ... it also proves that DHS has been lying about this incident." "We're honestly surprised they released this footage given that it so wholly contradicts their claims. Nobody was 'body slammed' nobody 'assaulted' any agents, and this footage confirms that." Zoom in: McIver said at a press conference Friday after the incident that she was "assaulted by multiple ICE officers while regional directors of ICE watched it happen." "Nobody offered an apology or said anything to me about what occurred out here," she added. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) stood by his members in a statement saying "the masked agents who physically accosted two Congresswomen must be identified immediately." What happened: The lawmakers and ICE officers got into a physical confrontation over the arrest of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka for allegedly trespassing at the Delaney Hall detention center in Newark. The Democrats were there protesting the reopening of the facility to hold migrants, arguing that the private prison company operating it has failed to obtain the proper sanitation and safety permits.
Yahoo
23-04-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Sen. Baldwin, Rep. Moore call firings of lead poisoning experts 'haphazard,' urge their return amid Milwaukee lead crisis
Sen. Tammy Baldwin and Rep. Gwen Moore called on the nation's top health official to reinstate fired lead poisoning experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who were helping with a lead contamination crisis in Milwaukee. The two Congressional members, both Democrats, made the call in a letter this week to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose agency laid off thousands of health workers, including its lead poisoning prevention branch, early this month. They also urged Kennedy to approve a formal request from city health officials for federal help, called Epi-Aid, with responding to widespread lead contamination at Milwaukee Public Schools, where district officials lost control of pervasive lead hazards in most of its school buildings. On April 3, officials with the Milwaukee Health Department received an email from a CDC official saying the request was denied "due to the complete loss of our Lead Program." The denial came two days after all of the CDC employees part of Lead Poisoning Prevention and Surveillance Branch were laid off, part of sweeping layoffs at the Health and Human Services department, or HHS, according to national news reports. More: CDC denies Milwaukee's request for help with MPS lead poisoning probe. RFK Jr. slashed jobs. "This haphazard approach to gutting the federal workforce is misguided and has resulted in unacceptable mistakes at the agency charged with safeguarding the public's health," the letter to Kennedy said. "You have the ability to immediately rectify this issue, and we urge you to do so." The layoffs are part of an overhaul of HHS that Kennedy says will streamline operations, make them more efficient and eliminate redundancies. The overhaul includes closing some regional offices, consolidating divisions and creating a new Administration for a Healthy America, or AHA. In statements, HHS has said the reorganization "is not affecting critical regional and national efforts." "HHS is planning to continue the important work of the lead poisoning prevention and surveillance branch that works to eliminate lead poisoning under the Administration for a Healthy America," said Emily G. Hilliard, deputy press secretary at HHS, in a previous email. In the letter, the two Congresswomen said the firings have affected key programs already and warned of "lasting consequences for young children in Milwaukee." "This assistance is needed in Milwaukee now," they said. In their request, made in late March, Milwaukee health officials had asked for a small team of CDC experts to come to Milwaukee to help at lead testing clinics and to lend their expertise in the lead response. Until the request was denied, the plan was for a team of three or four people to come to Milwaukee for four to five weeks, with the option of extending the visit, Milwaukee Health Commissioner Mike Totoraitis said in a press conference last week. "These were the top experts in the field for lead exposure," he said. "These are folks that see lead issues at a much larger scale than we do normally here in Milwaukee." City health officials had been working closely with lead poisoning experts at the CDC since early February, the month after they discovered an MPS school with flaking paint was the source of lead poisoning in a Milwaukee child. Health officials suspected that lead paint hazards, identified in seven schools by mid-March, were more widespread, and they were working with the CDC experts on a plan to ramp up testing of school children's blood lead levels. Then, the layoffs came. "We don't have any contacts at the CDC for childhood lead poisoning," Totoraitis said in the press conference April 14. "This is a pretty unprecedented scenario to not have someone to turn to at the CDC." In their letter, Baldwin and Moore pointed to past comments by Kennedy suggesting that some of the program cuts may have been mistaken and that the lead program was one of them. But he later walked back those comments, saying the programs had been consolidated, CBS News reported. MPS has more than 100 schools built before lead paint was banned. The district assumes they all have lead-based paint. It's considered safe as long as it's contained. When it starts peeling, cracking or chalking, it can pose a hazard to children who might ingest or inhale it. Over the last three decades, MPS cut most of its painting staff, stopped providing regular "painting days" and shifted painting costs onto individual schools. City health officials said it appeared MPS had not kept up with annual inspections of its schools for lead. MPS officials have pledged to improve internal systems amid demands from school board members and parents. The district will also stop requiring principals to cover painting costs with individual school budgets, Superintendent Brenda Cassellius has said. This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Baldwin, Moore urge RFK Jr. to reinstate fired lead poisoning experts
