WASHINGTON — The House of Representatives passed legislation funding the Department of Homeland Security on Thursday with no meaningful constraints on President Donald Trump’s often violent crackdown on immigrants in Minnesota and other blue states across the country.
Seven Democrats voted with all but one Republican to approve the bill, sending it to the Senate over the objections of Minnesota’s Democratic lawmakers.
“It is unjustifiable to shoot an American citizen in the face, to have masked men jumping out of unmarked cars asking American citizens for their papers,” Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) told HuffPost. “And this is not just happening in Minneapolis, it’s happening across Minnesota, and we cannot normalize this terror that our communities are feeling.”
The legislation includes $10 billion for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and $18 billion for Customs and Border Protection, the two federal agencies conducting sweeping raids involving thousands of federal agents in areas including Minnesota and, most recently, Maine. That’s on top of the unprecedented $75 billion boost in funding ICE received from Trump’s so-called Big Beautiful Bill that Republicans passed unilaterally last year.
Democrats sought to include restraints on some of ICE’s tactics by requiring that its agents obtain a warrant before detaining immigrants and that they follow a standard use-of-force policy, steps that might have prevented the fatal shooting of Renee Good by an ICE agent in Minneapolis. But those demands were blocked by Republicans in bicameral negotiations over the legislation, prompting many House Democrats, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.), to oppose the bill.
However, Jeffries didn’t “whip” the bill, allowing moderates and front-line Democrats to vote their conscience, including Henry Cuellar (Texas), Vicente Gonzalez (Texas), Laura Gillen (N.Y.), Jared Golden (Maine), Marie Glusenkamp Perez (Wash.), Don Davis (N.C.), and Tom Suozzi (N.Y.). A “no” vote on the bill would likely be weaponized by the GOP against Democrats in districts where Trump is popular, potentially threatening their party’s path to winning back control of the House in November’s midterm elections.
Democrats who helped negotiate the DHS budget argued that it’s the least bad option because ICE would continue to operate even if Democratic lawmakers withheld their votes for the bill, resulting in a funding lapse on Jan. 30. The $75 billion ICE received last year would ensure Trump’s immigration crackdown keeps running, while other, more popular agencies within DHS like the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Transportation Security Administration would experience a partial shutdown.
“The suggestion that a shutdown in this moment might curb the lawlessness of this administration is not rooted in reality: under a [continuing resolution] and in a shutdown, this administration can do everything they are already doing — but without any of the critical guardrails and constraints imposed by a full-year funding bill,” Sen. Patty Murray (Wash.), the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, said in a statement.
Passing the bill, those Democrats argue, would allow them to impose at least some constraints on ICE. Those include $20 million for new body-worn cameras for ICE and CBP officers, de-escalation training for ICE and CBP agents, and training to remind officers of Americans’ right to record any interactions they have with them. The bill would also establish oversight and transparency of the agency’s massive budget.
Shutting the agency down would mean not getting any of those things.
But Democrats who voted against the bill on Thursday argued there’s a moral imperative to find another way to rein in ICE and border patrol agents.
“They have no business being in American cities,” Omar told HuffPost. “Their mission has been to occupy, to terrorize, and to intimidate communities.”
Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), who negotiated the bill alongside Murray and who defended it earlier this week, also voted against it in a sign of how toxic ICE has become in the Democratic Party.
“ICE believes it can act with impunity and is behaving accordingly,” DeLauro said in a speech on the House floor.
Trump’s immigration agenda is getting a thumbs-down from the public, according to a new New York Times/Siena University poll released on Thursday. Just 40% of voters said they approve of his policies, while 58% said they disapprove. A whopping 71% of independents also said ICE has gone too far in its enforcement efforts.
The Senate is expected to take up the DHS budget bill as part of a larger funding package for six other government departments next week, days before the Jan. 30 funding deadline. The other departments include Defense, Labor, Health and Human Services, Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development.
The package will need support from at least eight Democratic senators to overcome a filibuster — and it’s likely to get that. Democrats aren’t looking to force another government shutdown this time, having failed to get an extension of Obamacare subsidies last year when they staged the longest government shutdown in history.
Progressive senators, however, vowed to oppose the bill anyway over its funding for ICE.
“The Gestapo tactics used by ICE reveal their inhumanity and lack of training,” Sen. Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.) said in a statement on Thursday. “The lawlessness and abject cruelty of this Administration are harming our Country, making us less safe here and across the world.”