During an interview with NewsNation released on Tuesday, DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said that DHS wasn’t ending traffic stops by ICE, “We [were] making it the last option, meaning that, why would we allow it to wait until they got into their vehicles?” And said that “before they can weaponize a 2,000-pound weapon, what we want to do is say, we’re going to arrest you there or we’ll arrest you at a traffic stop if we have to. But we’re going to try finding a better opportunity.”
Mullin said, “The president and I are always on the same page. We were never ending traffic stops. We [were] making it the last option, meaning that, why would we allow it to wait until they got into their vehicles? Why don’t we get them before they get to their vehicles? If our last option is to pull them over, we will. But the truth is, every time we pull somebody over for ICE, that person is going to jail. So, it’s immediately a fight or flight. It’s different than an officer pulling you over for a traffic ticket or a light out, you’re just going to get a ticket and go on your way. So, before they can weaponize a 2,000-pound weapon, what we want to do is say, we’re going to arrest you there or we’ll arrest you at a traffic stop if we have to. But we’re going to try finding a better opportunity.”
He continued, “But either way, we’re not going to slow down. We’re going to serve that warrant [in] the timely manner, the day that we decide to serve it. But if our only option is to pull you over, we will pull you over. That’s not an issue. At the same time, we’re going to continue to make our officers safer, make sure that we aren’t putting our officers at risk. But we’re going after the criminals, regardless of where they’re at.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
Read the full article here