Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
SOUTH WHITLEY - While U.S. Sen. Jim Banks was in South Whitley Monday for the dedication of the renovation and addition to Whitko Jr.-Sr. High School, he also took a few minutes afterward to answer some questions from the media about a range of other topics.
Speedway Slammer
On Aug. 5, the Department of Homeland Security announced a new partnership with the state of Indiana to expand U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention space by 1,000 beds. The beds will be available at the Miami Correctional Center. The “Speedway Slammer,” as it’s been dubbed, will house some of the worst criminal illegal aliens arrested by ICE, according to the announcement.
“Indiana will do its part to help President Trump deport illegal criminals, not just from Indiana but from the Midwest. That’s why President Trump and (Indiana) Gov. Braun have negotiated this deal to use the Miami Correctional Facility and empty beds at the state prison, just down the road from here, to house illegal criminals before they’re deported,” Banks stated. “I fully support that. That’s what President Trump ran on. President Trump won the last election with a historic mandate, the popular vote, and Indiana’s proud to do our part to make it happen.”
He said Hoosiers understand as well as anybody that the last four years and the 10 million-plus illegals that came into the United States - “many of them violent criminals with a criminal background and history” - can’t be sustained. “We have to deport them and President Trump has a plan to do that, and Indiana is going to play a big role in it.”
Washington, D.C.
Trump has also deployed the National Guard to Washington, D.C., as he announced Monday a crackdown on crime and homelessness. He announced that he’s putting D.C. police under federal control as part of his bid to take the capital back. Meanwhile, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser rejected Trump’s claim, saying violent crime in the Capitol has hit a 30-year-low.
Banks said Washington, D.C., is a dangerous place with a lot of crime.
“I’ve had a member of my staff who was robbed in the middle of the day at gunpoint, just near Capitol Hill. It’s a dangerous place,” he said. “President Trump said today, he specifically said that people from Indiana shouldn’t have to come to Washington, D.C., and fear for their safety. It is the nation’s capitol and we should expect more and we should do more to clean it up, make it a safe city, a clean city and truly represent the greatness of this country and our nation’s capitol. So, I fully support his efforts to use federal resources to do that and he made an announcement about that this morning. It makes a lot of sense to me that the mayor of Washington, D.C., and the leaders of Washington, D.C., aren’t doing their part.”
There is federal jurisdiction for oversight of the nation’s capitol for the federal government and Trump is exercising that, Banks said.
Russia
Trump is scheduled to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday in Alaska about Russia’s war with Ukraine.
Banks said no one has been tougher on Russia and Putin than Trump has, both in his first term and now, “and demanding that Putin come to the table and negotiate with Ukraine and (Ukraine President Volodymyr) Zelenskyy for an end to a deadly weapon in Ukraine.”
Trump recognizes the United States is $37 trillion in debt and the U.S. can’t keep giving blank checks to foreign countries like Ukraine and keep funding a war, Banks said. “We need to negotiate an end to the war and that’s what he’s doing in meeting with Putin. He’s also been meeting with Zelenskyy, some of those meetings have been high-profile. He’s been tough on both sides. He wants them to come to the table and negotiate a deal that, neither party might like the deal in the end, but at least put an end to the war and bring peace,” he continued.
Banks said Trump is the “greatest peacemaker of my lifetime. What he’s done to bring peace to the Middle East, what he’s doing to hopefully bring peace in Ukraine and that part of the world, he deserves a lot of credit for it. I’m glad that he’s using all of the options to try to bring these two sides together to end the war.”
Redistricting
Redistricting usually happens every 10 years after the U.S. Census. However, in Texas Republicans have been trying to pass a redistricting effort now before the 2026 midterm elections but Democratic lawmakers remain out of state to thwart that effort. U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance came to Indiana last week to speak to Braun about redistricting in the Hoosier state. California’s Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, launched a redistricting effort in his state to counter Trump’s and Republicans’ efforts in other states that could increase GOP seats in the House. Newsom also sent a letter to Trump asking him to stop the redistricting war among the states.
On the issue, Banks said, “I think there’s a lot of compelling reasons to take a look at what happened in the last Census, which counted illegals. President Biden and his administration, when they counted the Census numbers, they included illegal immigrants in the Census and that governed how districts were drawn and what states got more districts, what states lost districts. That’s not fair.”
He said he hasn’t met any Hoosier yet on either side of the aisle that thinks illegals should be allowed to be counted in the Census, especially how it relates to how Congressional districts are drawn.
“This isn’t up to me, though, it’s up to the governor. It’s up to the state legislative leaders. The governor has to call a special session to make it happen in Indiana, and I know that the governor is having those conversations with Speaker Huston and President Bray of the state senate,” Banks said.
While he didn’t know where the conversation was going to go, he said, “I think we all agree that what happened in the last Census was wrong and we should never count illegals in a Census again, and President Trump is right to take a look at it.”
Marijuana
On Monday, Trump said his administration was looking at the reclassification of marijuana and intended to make a decision in the upcoming weeks. Trump did not indicate at the briefing whether he intends to reclassify the drug, just that his administration would consider it, according to Politico.com. Reclassifying marijuana as a Schedule III drug would reduce penalties without making it fully legal.
“President Trump has been honest about it, that when it comes to marijuana, he said very clearly we shouldn’t smell it on the streets. You have a lot of states that have legalized it. It’s caused even more crime and issues,” Banks said. “I hope Indiana is never a state that legalizes marijuana, by the way.”
He said he didn’t know what Trump had in mind, but eventually it would have to go through Congress to pass a law to deal with that issues.
“I’m sure there will be further conversation about it. I know at the Statehouse there’s been conversation about legalizing marijuana in the state of Indiana. I hope that doesn’t happen,” Banks reiterated.
