Dems Demand to Defund ICE
In the wake of another fatal shooting of a US citizen in Minnesota by a federal officer, the Senate Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer, said his party would block a funding package next week if it includes money for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
The announcement, which dramatically escalates the potential for another partial government shutdown, comes as anger towards homeland security, which oversees ICE, intensifies among the party after a group of federal agents violently restrained and then fatally shot 37-year-old ICU nurse Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.
“What’s happening in Minnesota is appalling – and unacceptable in any American city,” Schumer, a New York senator, said in a statement. “Democrats sought common sense reforms in the Department of Homeland Security spending bill, but because of Republicans’ refusal to stand up to President Trump, the DHS bill is woefully inadequate to rein in the abuses of ICE. I will vote no.”
Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., who broke with her party and opposed its recent shutdown standoff over the Affordable Care Act, said she won’t support the DHS measure.
“The Trump Administration and Kristi Noem are putting undertrained, combative federal agents on the streets with no accountability. They are oppressing Americans and are at odds with local law enforcement,” Cortez Masto said in a statement. “This is clearly not about keeping Americans safe, it’s brutalizing U.S. citizens and law-abiding immigrants. I will not support the current Homeland Security funding bill.”
Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., who, like Cortez Masto, was one of the eight Senate Democrats who voted to reopen the government in November, also came out against the DHS legislation.
“As a member of the U.S. Senate, I have the responsibility to hold the Trump Administration accountable when I see abuses of power — like we are seeing from ICE right now,” Rosen said in a statement. “That is why I’ll be voting against any government funding package that contains the bill that funds this agency, until we have guardrails in place to curtail these abuses of power and ensure more accountability and transparency.”
Numerous Republican senators defended DHS after the killing of the man, identified as Alex Jeffrey Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse serving veterans. Pretti, was shot during an immigration enforcement operation targeting Jose Huerta-Chuma, an illegal immigrant with a criminal history including domestic assault for intentional conflict bodily harm, disorderly conduct and driving without a valid license.
Homeland Security officials said Pretti approached Border Patrol agents while armed with a 9 mm pistol and “violently resisted” when they attempted to disarm him.
Some Democrats, including Cortez Masto, are calling for DHS money to be decoupled and voted on separately.
But there’s no indication that GOP leaders will do that. A spokesperson for Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said they will come up as one bill.
Another complication for Democrats is that Republicans passed a one-time infusion of $170 billion for immigration enforcement, including ICE, which would be legally available for the Trump administration to spend even if DHS funding lapses.
Pretti’s father, Michael, told The Associated Press his son, a University of Minnesota graduate, started getting involved in protests after the fatal Jan. 7 shooting of Renee Nicole Good by an ICE agent, noting he was “very upset with what was happening in Minneapolis and throughout the United States with ICE.”
The Department of Homeland Security is leading the investigation into the shooting, with assistance from the FBI.
Bill, blocking funding and defunding are two different things. Defunding is permanent, blocking can be temporary. Especially during the credit limit funding debate. Please correct your inaccuracy in your article.
I think the defunding movement is more about politics and posturing than an expected outcome.
It’s pretty clear by now though the ICE culture needs lots of improvement as well as domestic policing training and a sense of professional ethics.
Today ICE is well trained for border operations and in-land detention and deportation of criminals. They are not trained for inland domestic operations where protests may occur, lots of innocent citizens about, and crowd control and de-escalation is the professional policing approach. They have made so many tactical and strategic errors in our city, it’s inexcusable. Heads should roll.
I had suggested it’s like LA police before Rodney King and noted all the organizational changes they went through after that erupted.
The fact that ICE is hiring 10K more agents, they have lowered the bar for entry as well as shortening the training time does not bode well short term. They are on the wrong path and making it worse.
I don’t think you need to defund, but most certainly need to revamp. Point is that cutting future funding may be necessary to get Trump, Noem, and Homan, off their asses to do something about ICE training and culture to increase the professionalism and stop the thuggery.
Look folks: you never could deport 20M in four years; you were lied to. There were about 650K immigrant criminals and 19.35M undocumented, but without further criminality. Focus on the criminals and find another solution for the undocumented. Save some time, money, and lives in the process.
The Republicans have an E-Verify Bill that only needs No-johnson Johnson to bring to the floor for a vote. It has bipartisan support and should pass. Now, the undocumented cannot work and you can decide to help them leave (no work, no money, no stay), or figure a viable, acceptable path to citizenry (fine, public service, citizen classes/tests, whatever). Or just get them a bus ticket to another country. If they have no work, no money, they will look for a way out. Might rob you, but they are not criminals and that won’t work well.
What we are doing now is stupid, cruel, and totally unnecessary given the problem solves itself with E-Verify. And a giant waste of our tax dollars to create a new standing army for this unwanted task of chasing down brown people without papers. You can choose whether the boot, or the acceptance downstream. But this waste of money, this cruelty, is a vanity exercise, not a practical one. You can’t, and never could, deport 20M in four years. It’s a lie. But your deficit will skyrockets, deaths will increase, unrest will grow, and no amount of tariff taxation without representation will cover your financial losses. China will be the winner as we borrow, borrow, and borrow more to raise our deficit and lower our GDP.