Wolf: Democrats’ ICE Reforms Target Public Safety Amid Sanctuary Policies

Former Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf warned Thursday that Democrats are leveraging Senate funding battles to weaken Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations, following a failed test vote on DHS appropriations.

Speaking in an interview, Wolf described Democratic efforts as a pretext for restricting ICE enforcement, stating their push for “significant reforms” aims to limit the agency’s activities and endanger officers. “What they really want is to limit ICE operations,” he said. “They want to put officers in danger.”

As chair of the Center for Homeland Security at the America First Policy Institute, Wolf emphasized that cooperation between federal and local law enforcement is critical for community safety, contrasting it with sanctuary policies he claims create chaos. “When there is cooperation with state and local law enforcement and ICE, there is safety,” he stated. “But when you have sanctuary city policies and officials’ rhetoric, there’s chaos.”

Wolf singled out Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, asserting his policies endanger ICE agents in Minneapolis. “DHS does and ICE does millions of operations a year in every state,” Wolf said. “Why do we only have problems in Minneapolis? It’s because of his policies.” He added: “This isn’t overly complicated. If you cooperate with ICE, there’s not going to be chaos.”