{"id":38,"date":"2026-05-26T20:12:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T20:12:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/?p=38"},"modified":"2026-05-26T20:12:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T20:12:12","slug":"senator-who-was-pepper-sprayed-by-ice-says-its-time-to-reform-the-agency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/?p=38","title":{"rendered":"Senator Who Was Pepper-Sprayed by ICE Says It\u2019s Time to Reform the Agency"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>\n<p>Sen. Andy Kim says that <span><u>getting pepper-sprayed<\/u><\/span> by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers at a protest outside a detention facility in New Jersey on Monday underscores the need for reform at the agency.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/?p=36\">Federal Court Blocks Alabama\u2019s Republican-Friendly Redistricting<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve seen a lot of crazy things in my career, but to see this kind of chaos and confrontation in our streets here in America, you know, it\u2019s hard to watch, because it just shows you just how broken we are as a country. And something that really, really hit home, is just how divided we are and how much violence is becoming a norm in this country,\u201d Kim said in an interview with NOTUS on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt just shows you the lack of accountability, just the lawlessness,\u201d the senator added.<\/p>\n<p>The New Jersey Democrat visited the Delaney Hall detention center in Newark, where around <span><u>300 migrants are holding a hunger strike<\/u><\/span> in protest of the center\u2019s conditions, alongside other Democratic officials from the state. Kim spoke with several protesters who told him they are lacking proper food and medical care at the facility, which is operated by GEO Group, one of ICE\u2019s biggest for-profit contractors for building and managing detention centers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe head of GEO Group inside just looked at me right to my face and said I was a liar, just blatantly to my face called me a liar,\u201d Kim said about raising concerns voiced by migrants .<\/p>\n<p>When he walked out of the facility, Kim, who is a former diplomat, tried to deescalate a tense confrontation between ICE agents in an armored car and a group of protesters. He stood between the two groups, and ultimately, ICE agents used pepper spray to separate the two sides, an incident captured in <span><u>photos<\/u><\/span> and <span><u>videos<\/u><\/span> that have since gone viral online.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cICE decided that they were just going to continue and just plow through the crowds with the armored vehicle and several other vehicles, and everything just descended very rapidly,\u201d Kim said. \u201cI saw multiple people just tackle down to the ground, people start throwing things, and then ICE started to fire pepper balls in our direction, and again I was trying to just maintain some separation between \u2026 the crowd and the ICE agents, and I was just kind of in the middle of all this, and pushing on both sides to stay back.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Department of Homeland Security said the protesters had blocked ICE agents\u2019 movement at the facility, criticizing Kim and the other Democratic lawmakers for supporting lax immigration policies.<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/?p=34\">Can a Candidate to the Left of Jared Golden Win in Maine\u2019s 2nd District?<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is nothing more than a political stunt by New Jersey sanctuary politicians for fundraising clicks,\u201d DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said in a <span><u>post<\/u><\/span> on X, denying the existence of a hunger strike. \u201cWe need these sanctuary politicians to stop peddling this garbage and cooperate with us to get these criminals out of their state.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Kim, who serves on the Senate Homeland Security Committee, said he was initially denied entry into the facility, but gained access only after placing a phone call to Mullin. New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill, who was also at the protest, said she was denied entry into the building.<\/p>\n<p>Democrats have been pushing for reforms to ICE following the deaths of two American citizens who were shot in January by federal immigration agents in Minnesota. Kim isn\u2019t the only senator to tangle with ICE, either. California Sen. Alex Padilla was pushed to the ground and handcuffed by federal agents after he attempted to ask a question at an ICE press conference in Los Angeles last year. Another New Jersey Democrat. Rep. LaMonica McIver <span><u>was indicted<\/u><\/span> last summer over a confrontation outside Delaney Hall.<\/p>\n<p>Senate Republicans are expected to try again to pass a party-line bill next week that includes billions of dollars more in funding for ICE enforcement operations. They <span><u>abruptly dropped plans to do so last week<\/u><\/span> after an internal rebellion over a Department of Justice settlement fund for allies of President Donald Trump who believe they were wrongly prosecuted by former President Joe Biden\u2019s administration, including people convicted of participating in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.<\/p>\n<p>Democrats are planning to continue to put pressure on Republicans to defend the need for more ICE funding over other priorities like health care or rising energy costs.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s going to continue to get worse and worse for them, because, right now I\u2019m back here in Jersey, you know, everyone\u2019s still besides themselves that we\u2019re still at war with Iran, that more strikes just happened the other day, and that we\u2019re continuing to see their gas prices go up, the affordability crisis growing,\u201d Kim said. \u201cI\u2019m still trying to use everything I can to be able to say we can\u2019t continue to fund this lawlessness and unaccountability that I myself not only saw but experienced firsthand.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/?p=32\">Progressive Group Boosts Abdul El-Sayed in Contentious Michigan Senate Race<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sen. Andy Kim vows Democrats will continue to oppose more money for ICE and says voters are more worried about rising costs of gas and food.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-congress"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Senator Who Was Pepper-Sprayed by ICE Says It\u2019s Time to Reform the Agency - Modern Home Journals<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/?p=38\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Senator Who Was Pepper-Sprayed by ICE Says It\u2019s Time to Reform the Agency - Modern Home Journals\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Sen. 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