House Republicans are warning that consequences are in store for three Democratic colleagues the Trump administration accused of “storming” a detention facility in defense of illegal immigrants last week.
“Look, there’s three possible disciplinary actions in Congress that the House can take,” Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters at his weekly press conference Wednesday.
He noted the House could censure, a symbolic rebuke with no further repercussions that requires a simple majority vote – a move Johnson said “probably does seem appropriate here.”
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Johnson noted the Republican majority could also boot them off their committees, or even expel those lawmakers – though he noted that required a significantly higher threshold.
“Now, expulsion requires a two-thirds vote. That’s not likely with margins that are this small. But, you know, we’re looking at what is appropriate,” he said.
Meanwhile, other House Republicans who spoke with Fox News Digital called for a range of punishments, from censure to arrests.
“I really think there should be criminal charges filed against them,” Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., told Fox News Digital, arguing there was no realistically sufficient punishment the House could levy.
“A censure doesn’t do anything but raise them money, and no one here has the balls to expel anybody. Only Democrats’ balls are that big.”
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Rep. Marlin Stutzman, R-Ind., however, said they should be “censured, at the least.”
“The Justice Department should be looking at it. If there was any sort of battery or physical assault, that’s just unacceptable,” Stutzman said.
Both Republicans and Democrats have traded accusations of assault since last Friday, when three Democratic members of Congress joined Newark Mayor Ras Baraka and other protesters to rush into an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility, the Delaney Hall detention center, in northern New Jersey.
Reps. Bonnie Watson Coleman, LaMonica McIver and Rob Menendez argued they had every right to be there as federal officials on federal grounds and accused ICE agents of “manhandling” lawmakers who joined protesters that day.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) accused the Democrats of “storming” the facility after a bus carrying detainees went through its gates and said their actions put both law enforcement and detainees’ safety at risk.
But Democrats are circling the wagons around the trio.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., sent a clear warning to Republicans on Tuesday.
“That’s a red line,” Jeffries said when asked about possible arrests or sanctions of the lawmakers. “It’s been made loudly and abundantly clear to the Trump administration, we’re not going to be intimidated by their tactics.”
Rep. John McGuire, R-Va., said he was in favor of punishing those Democrats.
“We should be better than that,” he said, without elaborating on what retribution was reasonable.
Rep. Buddy Carter, R-Ga., introduced a resolution on Tuesday to strip the trio of their committees, which the three Democrats criticized.
Fox News Digital reached out to the House Democrats for comment on the latest discussions.
