No Person Is Above the Law

Floor Speech

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Mr. YOUNG of Iowa. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in search of an answer to a very simple question.

Assistant Secretary Sarah Saldana, the Director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ICE, appeared before the House Appropriations Homeland Security Subcommittee on April 15. I serve on the subcommittee, and I questioned the Assistant Secretary about President Obama's comments he made in February of this year.

The President said: ``If somebody is working for ICE and there is a policy and they don't follow the policy, there are going to be consequences to it.'' He was commenting on ICE agents' following his directives and guidelines.

I used this opportunity to tell the Assistant Secretary that, if I had office policies that were contrary to the law, I would understand if my employees did not want to follow them. ``I would expect them to follow the law first,'' I said.

Director Saldana interrupted me to say: ``That is where you and I probably have a fundamental disagreement.''

America was founded on the principle that no person is above the law. I take that very seriously. The culture problems at ICE run very deep, but I think they start at the top.

My colleagues and I decided this was unacceptable and that we needed to investigate her statement and philosophy further, so we followed up with a letter to Assistant Secretary Saldana on May 15, asking for clarification.

I should note we asked for a response by June 5; yet, 31 days since the request and 10 days since the deadline, we have not seen a response from the Assistant Secretary. This should be deeply troubling to all in this House.

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