Less than a week into office, Gov. Mikie Sherrill used her time in the spotlight to discuss
the great snowstorm as a chance to make a statement about ICE, too.
Appearing Sunday morning on State of the Union with Dana Bash, Sherrill addressed
the two citizens in Minnesota who recently lost their lives during encounters with U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel.
“This is an unaccountable, untrained, lawless organization that is terrorizing American
citizens, and we need them off the streets immediately,” she said.
When pushed on the fact that New Jersey has many sanctuary cities — and asked how
she would handle their presence (and it’s already here), Sherrill pushed back on this
being a matter of being for/against sanctuary cities.
“This goes far beyond that,” she said — before showing off her history knowledge with a
reference toward the secret police that ruled East Germany.
“This is about a basically Stasi-type force of secret police that wear masks, that are
unidentifiable, that are unaccountable, that have leadership in the Trump administration
blatantly lying about what’s going on when the American people can see the videos
about exactly what’s happening,” she said.
Sherrill told Bash that the recent incidents in Minneapolis — not just the shooting of
Robin and Alex Pretti on Saturday and Renee Good earlier this month but also the use
of tear gas on demonstrators — would not occur in New Jersey.
“There is no police officer in the state of New Jersey that would A) act like that because
we have training that far surpasses any type of misconduct like that or B) should
anything untoward happen, the other agents with that police officer would stop that
immediately, and that person would be prosecuted to the fullest end of the law, which is
exactly what needs to happen with these ICE agents in Minneapolis,” she said.
On MS Now’s ‘The Weekend: Primetime,’ Sherrill sidestepped a question on whether ICE should be abolished, but she questioned the way it is currently operating — even suggesting a pause in funding.
“I believe that there should not be an out-of-control agency like this is acting outside the scope of their duties and taking loyalty oaths to the president,” she said. “What we need is an agency that is taking care of our borders, protecting people on the streets, and they’re going far outside of that.”
Sherrill started her media blitz at 8 a.m. with a call in to 1010 WINS to discuss the
state’s preparedness for the snowstorm that dumped more than 12 inches on New
Jersey Sunday.
In addition to numerous radio spots, she made appearances on News 12 (twice) and
PIX 11 in New Jersey, ABC, NBC and CBS in New York as well as ABC and CBS in
Philadelphia.
In addition to her time on CNN and MS NOW, she also spoke on Univision.
