GOP Sen. Susan Collins said she spoke Monday to embattled Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem after the administration launched an immigration enforcement campaign in her home state.
Collins declined to divulge details of her conversation with Noem to reporters — though her office indicated earlier this month that the senator had reached out to DHS about ICE’s activities in Maine.
Regarding the ICE presence there, Collins said in a statement last week that “people who are in this country legally should not be targets of ICE investigations,” while those who have “entered this country illegally and who have engaged in criminal activity …. could be subject to arrest and deportation.”
She added, “People who are exercising the right to peacefully gather and protest their government should be careful not to interfere with law enforcement efforts while doing so.
But the conversation comes at a critical moment. Federal agents shot and killed a U.S. citizen in Minneapolis over the weekend, prompting public outrage and sparking criticism from a growing number of Senate Republicans about the Trump administration’s handling of the situation. It’s the second such shooting to occur in the city since January began.
Collins is also the chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee who helped negotiate legislation to fund several agencies — including DHS — through the end of September. That bipartisan package is now imperiled as Democrats now say they won’t vote to support any bill that funds DHS without significant guardrails in place to rein in immigration enforcement activities.
DHS is among several agencies that would shut down after Jan. 30 unless lawmakers can reach some sort of compromise.
