The shooting death of a Minnesota woman is "very tragic," but she was killed while "impeding the legal authorities" of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents at a time when threats and violence against them are surging, Sen. Joni Ernst insisted on Newsmax Thursday.
"Today we have a young woman who has lost her life," the Iowa Republican told Newsmax's "National Report."
"Protesting is fine, but when you try to intervene in legal activities of our law enforcement agents, there are repercussions," she continued. "Unfortunately, this one was very extreme."
An ICE agent on Wednesday shot 37-year-old Renee Nicole Macklin Good in the head, sparking protests in Minnesota while federal government officials, including President Donald Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, insist she was killed in self-defense after attempting to hit agents with the truck she was driving.
Ernst, however, urged Americans not to interfere with law enforcement operations
"Our ICE agents have had a 1,300% increase when it comes to actions against them of physical violence just in the recent year," she said.
"We've seen an 8,000% increase of death threats against our ICE agents, and let me tell you, these threats, these physical actions against law enforcement officers, it's completely despicable," Ernst added.
Ernst also defended Noem and ICE officers, saying they have the legal authority to enforce immigration laws.
"Those agents that serve under [Noem] have authority. They are legally acting," Ernst said.
"They are removing people that are illegally in our country, those that are murderers, those that are rapists, those that are drug traffickers," she continued. "We have the responsibility to make sure our communities are safe...people need to take a step back and understand that these officers are enforcing the laws of our nation."
Ernst also criticized sanctuary policies, saying ICE agents often lack support from local law enforcement.
"They don't have any local police cooperation," she said. "They essentially are turning into their own police for crowd control measures. That's not why they are there."
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