I was sitting at my parents’ kitchen table when I finally broke down in tears, one week after mother and poet Renee Nicole Macklin Good was killed in Minneapolis by a federal ICE agent. I was picking my kids up from their apartment and had just watched another horrifying video of a different Minnesotan mother, crying in fear for her baby’s safety to a 911 operator while agents stood outside of her home with guns. I recounted the video to my parents, quickly wiping the tears from my face so my children wouldn’t see. My 80-year old dad put his hand on my back with a worried look on his face.
We don’t live in Minneapolis, but in New York’s 17th congressional district, where Rep. Mike Lawler, a Republican, has sat in office for the last three years. And Tuesday, Jan. 25, Lawler penned an op-ed in The New York Times, attempting to position himself as the moderate voice on the issue, calling for a “bipartisan solution” on immigration policy.
This didn’t surprise nor comfort me. After all, it’s Lawler, and election season is approaching.
Is Mike Lawler moderating on ICE?
Anyone who has followed Lawler’s track record knows that he is far from the moderate he claims to be. We’ve seen this year after year: Despite his insistence that he would never vote for a bill that cut Medicaid or Medicare, he voted for Trump’s disastrous “Big Beautiful bill” — the largest Medicaid cut in history. Despite his campaign promises that “extremism has no place in women’s healthcare,” he voted for dangerous federal legislation used to stigmatize abortion care and criminalize doctors.
And despite saying in his latest op-ed that ICE should “reassess their tactics,” Lawler voted in favor of the appropriations bill that would renew the agency’s budget, adding to the over $170 billion in taxpayer funds already allocated for immigration enforcement. This is a bill that Senate Democrats are vowing to reject, and doesn’t represent the American people: Nearly half of U.S. voters support abolishing ICE.
When it comes to Lawler, actions speak louder than words — but even his words scream contradictions. The very first line of his New York Timespiece states that the deaths of Good and Alex Pretti were “preventable,” but his official statement on the killing of Good two weeks prior was that it was “sadly inevitable” — also blaming “the deceased and her wife” for “escalating the situation.”
So, was it “inevitable” or “preventable”? The hypocrisy is sickening.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump is threatening to remove federal funds from sanctuary cities and states starting this month, including New York, and Lawler has continued to support ICE to be able to operate here. (At least he is clear about that.) And we are being naive if we think we’re not at risk of enduring the same atrocities that Minnesotans and their families have been subjected to over the past several weeks: the indiscriminate violence against protestors and targeting of people of color; the small children being used as bait to capture their parents; the family of seven being tear gassed and brutalized on their way to basketball practice.
Democrats in NY-17 can act
The good news is that New Yorkers are not powerless. New York’s 17th district is a swing district, and the election is in November. If we elect a Democrat to replace Lawler, it could flip the House, put Democrats back in power, and help stop Trump’s unparalleled destruction of our freedoms.
And unlike Lawler’s career of contradictions, the Democratic candidates vying for his seat have been clear from the beginning in their denouncement of ICE’s actions. They even put aside their competition against one another to make a joint statement condemning Good’s murder shortly after the shooting, and calling for a full investigation into her death. This is the kind of integrity and accountability we need.
Sitting at the kitchen table that day, I cried for Renee Good and her family, and for the countless families that have been terrorized by our administration the past several weeks. I cried because, like them, I am a mother too. I cried for my Black and brown neighbors and their children who will be ripped apart from each other, or worse, killed. I cried for the danger to my children who could be caught in the crossfire, should this cruel and inhumane campaign set its sights on New York.
But here is hope, and it lies in our hands. It’s time to strip the wolf of his clothing. We must have the moral courage to hold Lawler accountable, do whatever we can to support the Democratic candidates standing up to this madness, and pull the lever for change in our voting booths. Not only could we save ourselves and our neighbors from this administration of terror — but it could very well save the future of our country.
Vanessa Valenti is a writer and communications strategist. She lives with her two children in Croton-on-Hudson.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Lawler wants new ICE tactics. Why did he vote to fund it? | Opinion
Reporting by Vanessa Valenti, Special to the USA TODAY Network / Rockland/Westchester Journal News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
