Maine senator on ICE operations and funding bill

(CBS, KYMA) - Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) spoke with Margaret Brennan on Face the Nation Sunday about ICE operations in the state of Maine.

ICE launched an operation called "Catch of the Day," which would target Somali immigrants and target 1,400 migrants who have "terrorized communities in Maine," according to an official who spoke with CBS News.

This prompted Brennan to ask Sen. King what has been the operation's impact, and if he knows how many arrests there have been, and the senator said:

"There have been something like 100 that DHS has told us...and by the way, to follow up on [House Majority Leader Steve Scalise]'s previous comment, that worst of the worst website that DHS has established. They list 13 people in Maine. They concede that- or they state that they've arrested 100. I want to know who the other 83 are- I'm sorry, 87. My math is off. But the point is this worst of the worst thing is a pretext. What they're really doing is going after people who are here. They're asylum seekers. They're in the process. They have green cards. We've had numerous cases in Maine of people being stopped and detained with zero criminal record, including a recruit for the sheriff's office to be a guard at the at the county jail. So this idea that it's the worst of the worst is just nonsense."

During the interview, Brennan and King talked about Senator Minority Chuck Schumer (D-NY) saying Democrats will not vote for an appropriations bill if DHS funding is including, meaning it could lead to a partial government shutdown.

When asked how he's going to vote, King said:

"I hate shutdowns. I'm one of the people that helped negotiate the solution to end of the last shutdown, but I can't vote for a bill that includes ace funding under the circumstances. What they're doing in my state, what we saw yesterday in Minneapolis. There's an easy way out, by the way, [Senate Majority Leader John Thune] could separate, which is what they did in the house, separate the five other appropriation bills, put them on the floor. They would pass, I think, overwhelmingly. Then let's take up DHS. And by the way, if those bills pass, 96% of the federal government is funded. Take up DHS by itself. Let's have an honest negotiation. Put some guardrails on what's going on, some accountability, and that would solve this problem. We don't have to have a shutdown."

To watch more of Brennan's interview with King, click here.