Senate Democrats have threatened to oppose funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) after a recent Border Patrol agent-involved shooting occurred on Saturday.
Democrats such as Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM) and Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), among others, came out against voting in favor of a bill that would fund DHS. Democrats called for “MAJOR reforms” to be made to DHS.
The opposition from the Democrats came after a recent shooting, which left a 37-year-old man dead.
The Hill reported that the Democrats coming out against funding the DHS comes after “House Democrats joined with nearly all Republicans to pass a sweeping $64.4 billion funding bill, which includes roughly $10 billion for ICE.”:
Days prior, seven House Democrats joined with nearly all Republicans to pass a sweeping $64.4 billion funding bill, which includes roughly $10 billion for ICE. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) was the lone GOP congressman to vote against the measure.
It passed over the objections of Democratic leaders, who argued it did not do enough to rein in ICE operations and the conduct of officers.
“What’s happening in Minnesota is appalling—and unacceptable in any American city,” Schumer wrote in a post on X. “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.”
Schumer continued to state that Senate Democrats would not be providing “the votes to proceed to the appropriations bill if the DHS funding bill is included.”
“Trump’s endless empowerment of federal immigration agents has resulted in yet another senseless killing,” Warner wrote in a post on X. “This brutal crackdown has to end.”
Warner added that he “cannot” and would not “vote to fund DHS while” the Trump administration “continues these violent federal takeovers” in cities in the United States.
“Enough is enough,” Heinrich said in a post on X. “I will not vote to fund the lawlessness of DHS, not by itself and not packaged with other funding bills. We need MAJOR reforms at DHS, and we need them now.”
“I’m a hell no — not a penny more for ICE,” Warren wrote in a post on X. “We should not fund this terror.”
“I will not vote to fund the illegal DHS and ICE operations that terrorize Chicago, Minneapolis, and many other communities,” Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) wrote in a post on X. “The deaths of innocent Americans and the detaining of thousands of innocent people are a national disgrace.”
Breitbart News’s AWR Hawkins reported that in a statement, the DHS explained that agents had been “conducting a targeted operation in Minneapolis against an illegal alien wanted for violent assault.”
The man, who was identified as Alex Pretti, reportedly approached “U.S. Border Patrol officers with a 9mm semiautomatic handgun” as they were conducting operations.
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