Jasmine Crockett compares ICE enforcement operations to slave patrols, Nazi Germany as she campaigns in Texas Senate race
Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett is condemning U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations after the shooting death of Renee Good in Minneapolis earlier this month.
Crockett told CBS News Texas, "When I talk about the fact that what I see from ICE right now looks like slave patrols. As an African American woman, what I am doing is I'm framing things in the frame of thought that I can associate them with."
When asked if some people may feel that's too strong, Crockett didn't think so. "I don't. I know my history. When I know that slave patrols were some sort of military-like policing force that was going out and grabbing and disappearing people based on their skin color. People were having to walk around and show their papers. Yeah, that is what it looks like."
In response, Sen. John Cornyn said, "It is completely unacceptable for elected officials to trash our law enforcement officials, whether it's the local police, our state law enforcement officers, or federal officers like ICE, from enforcing the laws that Congress itself passed. It's dangerous when you have people say we ought to defund the police, will abolish ICE, and encourage some of this noncompliance with lawful orders by law enforcement. What happened in Minneapolis was tragic, but the woman involved should have complied with the officers' instructions."
Crockett's comments came days before the deadly shooting of a man in Minneapolis by an ICE agent. During a debate between Crockett and State Representative James Talarico sponsored by the AFL-CIO of Texas on Saturday, Crockett compared ICE to the nazis. "They are turning us into Nazi Germany because they're going door to door."
Talarico also sharply criticized ICE enforcement actions. "It's time to tear down this secret police force and replace it with an agency that's actually going to focus on public safety."
Crockett's remarks about ICE follow controversial comments she made in a Vanity Fair article in 2024, in which she described how some Latinos spoke in favor of a tough illegal immigration policy. She called it the "slave mentality" and said, "It's basically like, I fought to get here, but I left y'all where I left y'all, and I don't want no more y'all to come here."
When asked about what she said in the article, Crockett said, "I've talked to a lot of Latinos that have basically been like, we completely understood what you were trying to say in that moment. What I want people to understand is that the struggles of the African American community, as well as the Latino community, are greatly tied. Honestly, I think that there's more that unites Latinos and African Americans than divides us. They continue to try to divide us, even trying to take that particular statement out of context, when the reality was these are real conversations. There has been a real fear for a lot of people as it relates to immigration, and I was engaged in very real conversations and talking to people that were against more immigration as it relates to this country."
