Senate Democrats demand DHS funding bill include reforms to ‘rein in ICE’ | ICE (US Immigration and Customs Enforcement)
The Senate’s top Democrat, Chuck Schumer, demanded on Wednesday that legislation funding the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) include a mask ban and other reforms targeting federal agents involved in immigration enforcement, sparking a clash with Republicans that could lead to a partial government shutdown in the coming days.
Congress is racing to avoid a cut in federal funding starting Friday, and Senate Republican leaders plan to hold a key procedural vote Thursday on both the DHS funding measure and five bills that would authorize spending by some other government departments.
But after the weekend killing of U.S. citizen Alex Pretti by federal agents in Minneapolis, Schumer called for the DHS bill to be rewritten and voted on separately. He announced Wednesday that Democrats are “united” on “a set of common-sense and necessary policy goals we need to rein in ICE and end the violence.”
These include banning patrols by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and coordinating them with local and state police; the imposition of uniform codes of conduct and the need for independent investigations into violations; and banning federal agents from wearing masks, as well as requiring them to wear body cameras and carry identification.
“These are common-sense reforms that American Americans know and expect from law enforcement,” Schumer said. “If Republicans refuse to support them, they are choosing chaos over order. They are choosing to shield ICE from accountability for American lives.”
At a press conference held shortly before Schumer announced Democrats’ demands, Senate majority leader John Thune signaled he was open to discussing ICE reforms with Democrats, but there was no change to the GOP’s plans to begin voting on the spending bills on Thursday. All six bills were approved by the House of Representatives last week.
“Democrats objected, and we’re eager to find out what their demands, their demands, their desires are. I think the administration is willing to sit down with them and have a discussion, maybe have a discussion about how we move forward,” Thune said.
“But what I do know is that shutting down the government is not in anyone’s interest.”
The Republican leader added that the DHS funding bill includes less money for ICE than the Trump administration requested, as well as funding for body cameras for agents and “de-escalation training,” which he called “things Democrats say they want.”
He noted that failure to pass the DHS bill would not halt ICE’s operations because it received tens of billions of dollars from the One Big Good Bill Act earlier this year. However, this will also impact other agencies within DHS, such as the Transportation Security Administration and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema), which responded to last week’s widespread winter storm.
“Hopefully we can get this thing back on track. We need to fund the government,” Thune said.
Schumer’s demands greatly increase the likelihood of at least a partial shutdown starting this weekend because any changes to the DHS funding bill in the Senate would require it to pass the House again.
Patty Murray, the top Democrat on the Senate appropriations committee, told reporters that her party has no similar objections to five other spending bills pending before the Senate, which allow funding for departments including labor, defense, health and human services through September.
“Democrats are ready to avert a shutdown. We have five bills that we all agree on – about 95% of the remaining budget. It’s ready to go. We can pass those five bills, no problem,” he said.
“The ball is in Republicans’ court, but when it comes to DHS, we can’t ignore what happened Saturday, especially after what we’ve seen over the last 12 months. We must split this bill and grapple with the brutal reality we face with ICE.” [Customs and Border Protection] “They are out of control and they are endangering American citizens.”
Republicans control the Senate with 53 seats, and most bills require at least 60 votes to eliminate the filibuster; This necessitates bipartisan compromise.
The Democratic opposition is setting up a scenario similar to the one last September when the minority party refused to vote on government funding bills unless tax credits for Affordable Care Act health plans were extended. This resulted in the longest government shutdown in history, ending 43 days later when seven Democratic senators joined the GOP in reauthorizing spending.
Most Democratic senators publicly agree with the party’s strategy on the DHS appropriations bill, and some have joined calls for Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to resign or be fired over Pretti’s death.
John Fetterman, who represents the swing state of Pennsylvania, is among those who support Noem’s impeachment but has expressed hesitation about the possibility of a government shutdown.
“I … have spent significant time listening to many different positions on funding bills and have maintained that I would never vote to shut down our government, especially our department of defense,” he said in a statement Monday.
