On Thursday’s broadcast of CNN’s “Situation Room,” Senate Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said that the DHS shutdown is on Republicans, and when it came to legislation to fund DHS, “We held it up” to try to make changes on ICE and CBP.
Schumer said, “We’re not going to fund a lawless ICE or [CBP], but we’ve been trying to fund TSA. We’ve been trying to fund Coast Guard. And the Republicans have blocked it repeatedly. So, this shutdown is on their back and the failure, their failure to want to reform DHS — sorry — to reform ICE and Border Patrol, which are now doing things that — all we want them to do is what every police department does, use warrants, okay? Don’t mask, cooperate with local authorities. [The] American people want that. Everyone wants that. But a group of right-wing Republicans who just like ICE and [CBP] as it is, as much as we all abhor it, and it’s on them.”
Later, co-host Wolf Blitzer asked, “What do you say to those critics who argue that both ICE and Border Patrol are already set with funding, millions and millions of dollars, because of President Trump’s so-called Big Beautiful Bill that passed months ago, so Democrats just held up this legislation for what, for political posturing, is that right?”
Schumer answered, “Well, that’s not fair at all. We held it up because we wanted, as I mentioned before, to reform ICE and [CBP], which are lawless. The American people are totally on our side, I think by 2:1 or close to that. They want it reformed. And that’s what we’re pushing for. We’re not going to fund a lawless ICE and a lawless [CBP], and the American people are overwhelmingly on our side on that.”
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