That said, this is yet another media-created trap.
What Golden is saying here:
"Federal law enforcement agencies have the right and responsibility to enforce federal laws, including immigration laws, and a targeted law enforcement operation focused on individuals who have engaged in criminal activity serves the public interest."
...is not an outlier position among Democrats. In fact, it is the position held by all elected Democrats, as far as I can tell.
What Mediaite is doing here, by saying that Golden's position is "in stark contrast" to that of other Democrats, is setting up a binary where Democrats are either for immigration enforcement or against it.
Nobody on the Democratic side is saying that "individuals who have engaged in criminal activity" should be left alone. The objection to what is going on in Minnesota (and elsewhere) is that it is not only "individuals who have engaged in criminal activity" who are being swept up. It is legal, law-abiding immigrants, and in some cases US citizens, who are being harrassed, assaulted, having their homes invaded, their property stolen, their children endangered, being held at gunpoint, and teargassed.
It's also the criminalization of legal immigrants -- people who came here seeking asylum, who were previously following the process laid out for them by the government, suddenly becoming "illegal" thanks to a policy decision or an executive order from the White House, which is causing law-abiding residents of the US (mostly people of color, of course) to be rounded up and put in detention camps.
That is why most Democrats are objecting to ICE's current tactics, and that's why they stepped up to try to thwart ICE's funding.
When this is framed as "Republicans and reasonable Democrats like Jared Golden just want to get rid of criminals, but the rest of those sicko leftists want to defund the police and let rapists and murdered roam free," then it's a bullshit framing, IMO.
Unfortunately, Jared Golden is helping the media push that framing.
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