Senators Working On DHS Funding Deal That Would Exclude Funding For Deportation And Enforcement

I’m not quite sure how this would work, since ICE operations were already funded

Senators consider deal to fund Homeland Security but not ICE enforcement as airport lines snarl

Senators are discussing a proposal to end the Homeland Security budget stalemate by funding much of the department, including the Transportation Security Administration airport workers going without pay, but excluding ICE’s enforcement and removal operations that have been core to the dispute.

The potential breakthrough came after a group of Republican senators headed to the White House late Monday to meet with President Donald Trump. Senators said they expected the negotiators to work through the night hammering out the details and present written proposals for both parties to discuss Tuesday at their weekly caucus lunches.

“All I can say is that the discussions have been very positive and productive, and hopefully headed in the right direction,” said Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D.

Under the package being floated, ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations would be funded as well as Customs and Border Protection, but with new guardrails to position officers from those divisions in their traditional roles, rather than as they have been used more recently in immigration roundups in cities. It would also include a number of changes in immigration operations that Democrats have demanded, including mandating that officers wear body cameras and identification.

Since so much of ICE is already funded through Trump’s big tax breaks bill, and immigration officers are still receiving paychecks during the partial government shutdown, senators said the new restraints would also be imposed on operations that rely on that funding source, as well.

Enforcement of federal immigration laws and removal of aliens is rather the main point of ICE, is it not?

Let’s flip to The Hill

A Senate Republican source familiar with the discussion said Trump is willing to separate funding for the Enforcement and Removal Operation from the Homeland Security appropriations bill in order to get enough Democratic support it.

Under the proposal presented to Trump, Senate Republicans would pass additional money for ICE’s removal operations under the budget reconciliation process, which allows them to circumvent a Democratic filibuster in the Senate as long as the legislation being considered meets certain requirements related to the spending, taxation or deficit reduction.

Senate Republicans told Trump that they would also attempt to pass elements of the SAVE America Act, which Trump has called his No. 1 legislative priority, in the follow-up reconciliation bill.

Here’s the thing: will they? Will they have the cajones to do this? Republicans have basically gone Squish since George W. Bush came into office. Democrats play harball politics, Republicans try to play nice, which doesn’t really get them far. They mostly won’t blast Democrats and won’t fight. They “compromise” but most of their compromise gives Democrats what they want and almost nothing for Republicans. Will Republicans actually add the SAVE Act in? They aren’t fighting for it now.

As far as body cams go, well, that usually results in Democrats losing, because the cams show Democrat bad behavior, as we’ve seen with police now wearing them heavily. Cops want to wear them in the post George “Fentanyl” Floyd era to show they are doing the job while people are being wackjobs.

Not sure what happened to Rand, but, how about this: we run with Rand’s proposal and keep all the ICE funding in the DHS funding bill. But, we add in a measure that makes it a federal felony to dox federal agents and harass them and their families. That’s why they wear masks.

Also, why aren’t we using contractors instead of TSA?