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House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries clashed with left-wing podcast host Wajahat Ali on Friday while facing questions about Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Speaking with Ali and ex-MSNBC host Joy Reid during Reid’s show, Jeffries argued that one of the most actionable things Democrats could do right now is making it so state attorneys general can investigate and prosecute ICE agents, as Republicans control the House and the Senate and any action against the agency or the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) would require Republican support.
Ali demanded Jeffries lead the push to abolish the agency all together.
“I’m going to be a bit blunt here. Leaders lead, and what we’ve seen is people are impressionable. If you lead on something, people will follow. It seems the wind is behind your back for the first time ever. ICE has a history, CPP has a history of terrorizing Black and Brown communities,” he said. “People are asking themselves, why are we, our taxpayer dollars, paying for masked, lawless men to terrorize our communities, kidnap people, take children, and kill Americans?”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) speaks during a press conference in Washington, D.C., on November 20, 2025. Wajahat Ali speaks onstage at the Midnight Theatre & Hidden Leaf Restaurant on May 03, 2023 in New York City. (Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images; Cindy Ord/Getty Images for BAFTA)
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The left-wing personality said, “Why not lead and say abolish ICE? Because what you’re telling us is you want our taxpayer dollars to pay for a lawless mass armed agency to continue terrorizing our cities. And I’m trying to figure out how you, as a leader, can be telling Americans that their taxpayer dollars should be going to ICE.”
Jeffries shot back and said, “I don’t understand anything that you just said.”
Ali then added, “I spoke English.”
The lawmaker argued that he had made clear that American tax dollars should be put towards making things more affordable, rather than brutalizing or killing them, in reference to ICE.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, a Democrat from New York, speaks during a news conference at the US Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, Feb. 6, 2025. (Tierney L. Cross/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
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“Listen, I’m going to use the language that I want to use. You can use the language that you want to use,” Jeffries told Ali. “And the language that I’m using right now relates to these type of bold, meaningful, dramatic changes that are designed to save lives right now in communities that look like the ones that I represent, and that’s the goal.”
Calls to abolish ICE have ramped up within the left-wing of the Democratic Party after the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti by a border patrol agent in Minneapolis.
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Representative Hakeem Jeffries, a Democrat from New York, left, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, walk to speak to members of the media following a meeting at the White House in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 29, 2025. (Annabelle Gordon/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“We must reform ICE. But it looks at this stage, folks, ICE is beyond reform,” Democratic Rep. Shri Thanedar said in January. “ICE is totally out of control, and this week I intend to introduce a bill to abolish ICE.”
Democratic leaders, including Jeffries, shared a list of demands for reform for ICE earlier this month, insisting they be added to the funding bill for the DHS.
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The list of demands included, prohibiting masks, requiring ID for agents, upholding the use of force standards, and ensuring state and local coordination and oversight, among others.
