KITTERY — Sen. Susan Collins defended her support for the Department of Homeland Security on Friday, saying she is working with federal officials to improve immigration enforcement.
In recent weeks, Democrats and Democrat-aligned groups have been critical of Collins, a Republican running for her sixth term, for supporting increased funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
And while they say she has not put any guardrails in place, she pushed back on Friday, telling reporters she voted to allocate money for body cameras, de-escalation training and investigations into ICE activity.
“It’s not true that I did not put guardrails into the funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security,” she said.
A spokesman for the Maine Democratic Party said Friday that Collins voted against a Democratic amendment to a spending bill that would have required ICE agents to wear body cameras and make the footage available to Congress.
"As Susan Collins continues to try to play hero, Mainers won't forget that she voted against body cameras and provided ICE with unprecedented levels of funding with no guardrails despite their lawless, violent behavior," Democratic spokesman Misha Linnehan said. "Make no mistake — ICE has had a blank check to terrorize communities because Susan Collins gave it to them."
Collins also said she did not envision that the de-escalation funds would be used for “shock gloves” reportedly being made available to agents to subdue suspects. She said she would be following up with ICE leadership on the gloves.
“The money that we put in for de-escalation training was intended to help agents deal more effectively when there’s a large crowd that appears to be getting out of control,” she said. “It was teaching them techniques on how to deal with that.”
Collins launched her “All of Maine” bus tour from Kittery Trading Post on Friday, a 16-county re-election push that will continue until Election Day.
She faces former Maine Senate President Troy Jackson, who toured a Westbrook union shop on Friday. Just three weeks ago, Democrats chose him as their nominee following a truncated selection process.
The race is one of the most closely watched in the country as Democrats look to wrest control of the Senate from Republicans.
Following the death of Johan Sebastian Duran Guerrero, 25, in Biddeford, last month, immigration enforcement has become a leading topic in the Maine Senate race. An ICE agent shot and killed Guerrero during a traffic stop. He was not the intended target of the immigration action, federal officials have confirmed.
Collins said she’s calling for a full investigation into the killing of Guerrero.
That investigation would have benefitted from body camera footage, she said, noting that as of this week, all ICE agents in Maine have the cameras and have been trained to use them.
She said she’s working on other ICE reforms too but did not elaborate on what those might be.
She did say too many ICE and Border Patrol agents were sent into the field “without proper vetting and without proper training.”
She also defended her decision to continue funding homeland security, most recently by voting in June to support an additional $70 billion. She said that money is needed to crack down on human trafficking, child exploitation, drug smuggling and financial crimes.
On the political front, she batted away a question about a Fox News poll that showed some voters are concerned that she too frequently supports the agenda of President Donald Trump. She said she’s often described as the most bipartisan member of the Senate.
“My approach has not changed in any way,” she said. “I have worked with five presidents. I’ve supported them when I think they are right. I have not hesitated to oppose them when I think that they’re wrong.”
