Ossoff calls for Homeland Security secretary to resign amid ICE operations

SAVANNAH, Ga. (WTOC) - Georgia Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff is calling for Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem to resign as protestors and federal agents continue to clash in Minnesota.

When asked directly if he supports the calls for Noem to resign, Ossoff said, “I think her resignation is long overdue.”

The senator specifically brought up ICE agents actions in Minneapolis. Ossoff pointed to the shooting of protestor Alex Pretti, saying federal agents who kill Americans should be restrained and held accountable.

The developments come as funding for ICE could be a sticking point in another government shutdown.

“The Republican threats to shutdown the government over this are deeply irresponsible,” Ossoff said. “There are the votes in the Senate right now to pass funding bills for the overwhelming majority of federal agencies, including the Department of Defense, including the Department of Transportation. At issue are policy within just two federal agencies within the Department of Homeland Security.”

The Senator continued, “The idea that Republicans would force a government shutdown over a policy dispute contained to two specific federal agencies, I think is troubling. And that is why I oppose a government shutdown and call upon Leader Thune, the Republican leader in the Senate, to swiftly pass the rest of these appropriations bills to ensure that our troops are paid, our traffic controllers are paid, and Americans’ quality of life is not undermined”.

WTOC reached out to Republican Congressman Buddy Carter for a response to Ossoff’s comments.

Carter, who is running for Ossoff’s seat in the senate, said, “Ossoff is threatening to vote against funding FEMA in the midst of a winter storm, a pay raise for our service members, paychecks for air traffic controllers, and more just to protect criminal illegal aliens from deportation. He shed no tears when Laken Riley was murdered, yet has no problem abandoning law enforcement to please the mob in Minnesota. If there is a shutdown, it will be because Ossoff and the radical left believe that the livelihoods of rapists, pedophiles, and murderers are more important than protecting Georgians”.