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House Set to Fund Immigration Actions 06/09 09:35
House Republicans will look to get nearly $70 billion for immigration
enforcement over the finish line Tuesday, enough to fund a pair of Homeland
Security agencies through the next three years and the rest of President Donald
Trump's time in office.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- House Republicans will look to get nearly $70 billion for
immigration enforcement over the finish line Tuesday, enough to fund a pair of
Homeland Security agencies through the next three years and the rest of
President Donald Trump's time in office.
Speaker Mike Johnson will need near perfect attendance and unity on his side
to complete weeks of action on the bill. The legislation got sidetracked when
Republicans sought to include $1 billion for enhanced security on the White
House grounds, including for Trump's new ballroom, and the Trump administration
tried to create a nearly $1.8 billion fund to compensate allies of the
president who claim they have been unjustly investigated and prosecuted. Those
proposals proved politically toxic and were scrapped.
Now, the bill is focused entirely on immigration enforcement, a topic that
Republicans have treated as a defining issue between the two major political
parties and one they hope will carry them to victory in this year's midterm
elections. The bill provides $38 billion for Immigration and Customs
Enforcement, $26 billion for the Border Patrol and another $5 billion to cover
unforeseen costs, fueling Trump's deportation agenda.
"It's long overdue," said Johnson, R-La., of the bill. "We have to fund
border security and immigration enforcement, and it's sad that Republicans have
to do it on our own."
Funding accelerates Trump's deportation agenda
The funding comes on top of the nearly $140 billion that the
Republican-controlled Congress gave ICE and Customs and Border Protection last
year as part of Trump's tax and spending cuts bill.
Democrats objected to giving the agencies more money without significant
changes in the way they operate after the deaths of Alex Pretti and Renee Good
in Minneapolis. For example, Democrats insisted that agents be required to
display their ID badges during enforcement operations and that they get a
judicial warrant before entering private property. Instead, the funding will
come with virtually no strings attached.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries vowed his party would oppose the
package.
"We believe that taxpayer dollars should be used to make life more
affordable for the American people -- not give ICE another $70 billion blank
check so that they can unleash brutality on American citizens and violently
target law-abiding immigrant communities," said Jeffries of New York.
Homeland Security faced longest shutdown in history
The package is the result of a monthslong standoff in Congress after
Democrats refused to fund the Department of Homeland Security in the wake of
the immigration enforcement actions in Minneapolis and other American cities,
leading to the longest shutdown in agency history.
Negotiations had been underway with the White House to alter ICE operations
as Democrats were demanding. When those negotiations failed, Republicans turned
to a complicated procedural maneuver to get around the filibuster and pass the
immigration funding with no Democratic votes.
If approved, the package would next go to Trump for his signature, all but
assuring an essentially uninterrupted flow of funds for his immigration
enforcement and deportation agenda into 2029.
The Senate completed its work on the legislation last week during an
all-night session that extended into the early morning hours Friday. The final
52-47 vote on the bill was nearly party line, with Sen. Lisa Murkowski of
Alaska the only Republican to oppose it.
Money comes at pivotal time for immigration agenda
The money will come at a pivotal time for the Department of Homeland
Security, which is under new leadership after Trump replaced Kristi Noem with
new Secretary Markwayne Mullin in March.
While Mullin has vowed to keep the department out of the headlines, the
administration is under pressure from anti-immigration advocates to deliver on
Trump's campaign promise of the largest deportation operation in American
history.
So far, the administration has not hit its goal of 1 million deportations a
year, but Trump's border czar, Tom Homan, has promised more to come, including
hinting at immigration enforcement actions in New York, the nation's biggest
city, which is heavily Democratic.
At the same time, the administration is making it more difficult for legal
immigrants to remain in the U.S. by working to end Temporary Protective Status,
changing the processes for obtaining green cards and leaving some Dreamers --
the young people who were brought illegally to the U.S. as children --
reporting delays in renewing their status, which allows them to stay and work.
Tight vote ahead
On the House side, Johnson has little margin for error. Republicans can
afford to lose only a couple of votes if every lawmaker is present. GOP
leadership opted to avoid any hiccups and sent lawmakers home last week rather
than take up the bill early Friday once the Senate had completed its
all-nighter.
The bill is just a slim package, without the hundreds of pages of details
and directives that typically come from Congress when it provides funding for
agencies.
Leading up to the vote, Democrats portrayed DHS as an agency that has used
its new resources to buy private jets for its leadership, warehouse immigrants
in deplorable conditions and attack U.S. citizens.
"To give these rogue agencies another $70 billion now when they still have
$100 billion in the bank from last year would implicate all of us in the
escalating corruption and shameful actions of this department," said Rep. Jamie
Raskin of Maryland, the ranking Democratic member on the House Judiciary
Committee.
Republicans countered that they were fulfilling their duty to safeguard the
nation and support the men and women charged with enforcing the law.
"Democrats can say whatever they want, but what it's about is public safety.
What's it about is keeping Americans safe," said Rep. Michelle Fischbach,
R-Minn.
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