>> The ICE surge is ending in Minnesota. White House
borders are Tom Homan announcing the move as U.S.
Senate Democrats vote to block funding for homeland
security over demands for stricter rules of
engagement for immigration agents. Also this week, the
House passes new election rules aimed at preventing
noncitizens from voting. Tonight, we're joined by
Republican U.S. Representative Scott
Fitzgerald from Wisconsin's fifth congressional
district. And Congressman, thanks very much for being
here. >> Good to be with you.
>> So a busy week, as always in Washington.
What's your reaction to the immigration enforcement
surge ending in Minnesota? >> I mean, I think the
president handled it very well. Tom Homan has become
a figure that, quite honestly, is very well
trusted by both sides of the aisle. If you go back
even to the Obama administration, the
president had a relationship with Tom Homan.
And and ever since then, he has been obviously a figure
that's high profile. But I think what the president
did there made a lot of sense. De-escalate, bring
down the temperature. Let's let's figure out how to do
a better job of this. And so far it's it seemed to
have worked well. >> So how would you grade
the overall operation making mention here? Of
course. Of the two U.S. citizens killed by agents
in the midst of it? >> Yeah, both obviously
very unfortunate incidents. I think it did show that
the idea that if you were going to go into any
community in the United States and you were going
to receive resistance from local law enforcement, or
if there was going to be kind of this this situation
where Ice was not really operating under the idea
that they were going to be able to go in and apprehend
people using some type of detain order, then what you
would end up with is this back and forth in the
streets. And and certainly that wasn't productive. So,
you know, unfortunately the border was open for four
years under the Biden administration. And one of
the things that President Trump ran on was that he
was going to apprehend those that had criminal
records and and deport them. And, you know, but how that
was going to be accomplished is as varied
from state to state. >> Do you feel as though
law enforcement should be better at de-escalating a
special, especially after seeing what happened in
Minnesota? >> Well, I think we're in
uncharted waters, right? I mean, this is not something
that the average law enforcement agency has
really dealt with in the past. If if there was not
such a high number of illegals and those with
criminal records, it's very easy for them to simply go
to any county jail where they've already been
apprehended. And there would just be a turnover to
to Ice. And other than in some sanctuary cities, that
is the way it's always happened. Now there's a
much higher number of illegals in the states
right now than we've ever seen before. But, you know,
that process has always served us well, but we find
ourselves in in a different position right now.
>> Meanwhile, the stopgap funding for Homeland
Security expires at midnight. What's your
response to Democrats demands for new rules for
Ice and other agents, including not wearing masks
and requiring the use of judicial warrants?
>> Yeah, I mean, I think if you look at the laundry
list of things that Senator Chuck Schumer had rolled
out from the Senate, it was kind of dead on arrival in
the House. So there would have had to have been some
other type of negotiation. And and it appears that the
white House did kind of make a run at it, that they
were trying to pull together a list that might
have been acceptable, but the ten or so items that
that the Senate had laid out was not going to happen.
So we find ourselves in a unbelievable situation. I
think, of the Democrats kind of holding this up
again, and a very small government shutdown related
to homeland security, which makes no sense because Ice
is funded. It was funded in the one big beautiful bill.
There's still excess dollars there. Homeland
security says they can operate for months with
with Ice being able to still accomplish their jobs.
But yet you're shutting down things like the Secret
Service and you're shutting down TSA at the airports,
and you're shutting down the Coast Guard operations.
So there's all these other provisions and parts of of
Homeland Security that are going to be left unfunded.
And, and they all run out of money at different times.
So it's this really is the the most political move
we've seen so far, I think from, from the Senate
Democrats. >> Would you like to see a
surge of immigration enforcement in Wisconsin?
>> I've been asked that question specifically about
like the city of Milwaukee. I don't I don't think it's
been necessary. I know some people disagree with that,
but we just don't see the numbers that we've seen
kind of in some of these other areas. But I know
Madison is a sanctuary city there. There doesn't seem
to be the level of of certainly, I guess,
animosity between local levels of government and,
and Ice being able to do their job. So it just
doesn't appear to me that, that we would be at the top
of the list where where maybe those Ice agents may,
may end up. So it's it's kind of, I guess a wait and
see, but but doesn't, doesn't appear to be the a
good a good thing for Wisconsin and I think maybe
not necessary for Ice. >> On elections legislation
ahead of the midterms. New requirements would require
proof of citizenship to register and vote. Now,
Democrats, of course, say this is voter suppression
and solution in search of a problem, because
non-citizen voting is a small number. What about
that? >> I mean, I've been
through this as majority leader of the Wisconsin
State Senate. I've now been through it through numerous
bills in the House of Representatives. Listen, at
the end of the day, 85% of Americans think that you
should have to present some form of ID when you go vote.
It's bipartisan support. The the response from the
other side of the aisle has been, I think, almost
laughable in that they continue to just pretend
like that, that type of poll number or support for
voter ID doesn't exist. >> This is.
>> There's no other reason to support it other than
people are not presenting their their IDs at the
polls. >> Congressman, this is
something more than that though, right? It's a
passport or a birth certificate to register to
vote, which is a higher bar than just a photo ID.
>> Yeah, I mean, there's there's a lot of criticism
from the other side of the aisle. I mean, you can
nitpick any of these bills by saying that you're
asking for more information other than a driver's
license. But in most states, I mean, the documents that
you need to provide to get that driver's license,
unless there's a full out kind of anybody who shows
up, gets that, gets that initial document, they fill
it out and they're granted a driver's license. It is
still some form of ID and I, and I'm not saying that,
you know, the bill, the save act, which which I
think is well done and has been crafted correctly, I,
you know, I've never been a big supporter of just
federalizing these election laws. I think it's
important to keep some of these things decentralized.
So for me, somebody that served in the state
legislature for so long, I mean, there is part of this
discussion in which I'm saying, listen, this is
what American people need to believe in the election
cycle, especially in Wisconsin, where I run into
constituents all the time that still think that the
2020 election was manipulated by rules
related to Covid. It happens all the time. I run
into people all the time that talk to me about that.
This would instill some what I what I think some
concrete evidence that people that show up at the
polls have some type of document in their hand,
some type of, of driver's license in their hand to
prove that they're a citizen and prove that
they're a wisconsinite and they should be voting in
that election. >> Congressman Scott