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Ocasio-Cortez, Pressley, Tlaib and Omar Call for Cuts to ICE Funding
by Jake Johnson
February 1, 2019
Common Dreams
PHOTO: From left, Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Tlaib attend a House Oversight and Reform Committee business meeting in the Rayburn Building on Tuesday, January 29, 2019. Tom Williams / CQ Roll Call
As House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) signaled on Thursday that Democrats are willing to offer President Donald Trump funding for border “technology” and “Normandy fencing” — but nothing for his wall — Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and three of her progressive colleagues sent a letter urging Democratic negotiators to take a harder line by slashing funding for the agencies at the center of Trump’s anti-immigrant agenda.
Condemning the Trump administration for putting “profits before people and rhetoric before the lives of immigrant children,” Ocasio-Cortez joined Reps. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), and Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) in demanding that Democrats cut funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
“These agencies have promulgated an agenda driven by hate — not strategy,” reads the letter, which was first published on Thursday by The Daily Beast. “With the world watching and the lives of families at stake, we should not compromise our values at the negotiating table.”
The letter from House progressives, which is expected to be read on the House floor next week, went public as Trump told reporters on Thursday that he “won’t waste [his] time reading” any funding agreement that doesn’t include wall money — an indication that he may be willing to shut down the government again when the current stopgap spending measure expires Feb. 15.
The president also suggested that he is still considering a national emergency declaration to build the wall without congressional funding.
But even as he repeatedly demanded wall money from Congress, Trump also bizarrely stated, “We have money, just so you understand. We have money, we’re building the wall right now. A lot of it. People don’t know that, and nobody reports it, but that’s ok.”
by Jake Johnson
February 1, 2019
Common Dreams
As House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) signaled on Thursday that Democrats are willing to offer President Donald Trump funding for border “technology” and “Normandy fencing” — but nothing for his wall — Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and three of her progressive colleagues sent a letter urging Democratic negotiators to take a harder line by slashing funding for the agencies at the center of Trump’s anti-immigrant agenda.
Condemning the Trump administration for putting “profits before people and rhetoric before the lives of immigrant children,” Ocasio-Cortez joined Reps. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), and Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) in demanding that Democrats cut funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
“These agencies have promulgated an agenda driven by hate — not strategy,” reads the letter, which was first published on Thursday by The Daily Beast. “With the world watching and the lives of families at stake, we should not compromise our values at the negotiating table.”
The letter from House progressives, which is expected to be read on the House floor next week, went public as Trump told reporters on Thursday that he “won’t waste [his] time reading” any funding agreement that doesn’t include wall money — an indication that he may be willing to shut down the government again when the current stopgap spending measure expires Feb. 15.
The president also suggested that he is still considering a national emergency declaration to build the wall without congressional funding.
But even as he repeatedly demanded wall money from Congress, Trump also bizarrely stated, “We have money, just so you understand. We have money, we’re building the wall right now. A lot of it. People don’t know that, and nobody reports it, but that’s ok.”
Trump is
hopelessly incoherent: “We’re building the wall right now. It’s going up
fairly rapidly,” he says (falsely), while at the same time urging
Congress to give him money to build the wall. pic.twitter.com/venmu1WJoT
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 31, 2019
Bipartisan conference committee negotiations on a spending plan that
would keep the government open beyond Feb. 15 kicked off this week, but
no concrete proposals have yet emerged from the talks.
According
to The Daily Beast, “Democratic lawmakers on the conference committee
indicated that plenty of options were on the table in talks with
Republican counterparts. But decreasing funding for DHS was not one of
them. The Democrats’ opening bid offers a $589 million increase in the
agency’s budget from the year before.”
With Trump standing firm
in his demand for wall money and Democrats continuing to offer fencing
and technology that rights groups have denounced as ineffective,
immoral, and unconstitutional, progressives celebrated Tlaib,
Ocasio-Cortez, Pressley, and Omar for taking a “principled position”
beyond merely rejecting the president’s outlandish proposal.
“This is exactly the type of leadership we need in Congress,” said Gregory Cendana of United We Dream.
United We Dream
✔
@UNITEDWEDREAM
No more money for Trump’s mass deportation force!@AyannaPressley,
@AOC, @Ilhan & @RashidaTlaib are calling on Congress to cut funding
for ICE, CBP, and Trump’s border wall. ✊🏾
☎️ CALL Congress and demand they #DefundHate: 210-702-3059https://www.thedailybeast.com/progressive-democrats-to-shutdown-negotiators-not-another-dollar-in-dhs-funding …
32
11:52 AM - Jan 31, 2019
32
11:52 AM - Jan 31, 2019
Twitter Ads info and privacy
Progressive Democrats to Shutdown Negotiators: ‘Not Another Dollar’ In DHS Funding
In a letter sent to their colleagues, the freshmen lawmakers severely move the Overton Window of the border wall debate.
RAICES ✔
@RAICESTEXAS
@RAICESTEXAS
Thank you @AOC, @IlhanMN, @AyannaPressley and @RashidaTlaib for
pushing the Democratic party on the right direction on this issue. DHS
does not need more money and Trump can't continue to get away with his
fear mongering tactics.
191
10:31 AM - Jan 31, 2019
Twitter Ads info and privacy
Progressive Democrats to Shutdown Negotiators: ‘Not Another Dollar’ In DHS Funding
In a letter sent to their colleagues, the freshmen lawmakers severely move the Overton Window of the border wall debate.
As House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) signaled on Thursday that
Democrats are willing to offer President Donald Trump funding for border
“technology” and “Normandy fencing” — but nothing for his wall — Rep.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and three of her progressive colleagues
sent a letter urging Democratic negotiators to take a harder line by
slashing funding for the agencies at the center of Trump’s
anti-immigrant agenda.
Condemning the Trump administration for
putting “profits before people and rhetoric before the lives of
immigrant children,” Ocasio-Cortez joined Reps. Ayanna Pressley
(D-Mass.), Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), and Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) in
demanding that Democrats cut funding for the Department of Homeland
Security (DHS), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and Customs
and Border Protection (CBP).
“These agencies have promulgated an
agenda driven by hate — not strategy,” reads the letter, which was first
published on Thursday by The Daily Beast. “With the world watching and
the lives of families at stake, we should not compromise our values at
the negotiating table.”
The letter from House progressives, which
is expected to be read on the House floor next week, went public as
Trump told reporters on Thursday that he “won’t waste [his] time
reading” any funding agreement that doesn’t include wall money — an
indication that he may be willing to shut down the government again when
the current stopgap spending measure expires Feb. 15.
The
president also suggested that he is still considering a national
emergency declaration to build the wall without congressional funding.
But even as he repeatedly demanded wall money from Congress, Trump also
bizarrely stated, “We have money, just so you understand. We have
money, we’re building the wall right now. A lot of it. People don’t know
that, and nobody reports it, but that’s ok.”
Trump is
hopelessly incoherent: “We’re building the wall right now. It’s going up
fairly rapidly,” he says (falsely), while at the same time urging
Congress to give him money to build the wall. pic.twitter.com/venmu1WJoT
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) January 31, 2019
Bipartisan conference committee negotiations on a spending plan that
would keep the government open beyond Feb. 15 kicked off this week, but
no concrete proposals have yet emerged from the talks.
According
to The Daily Beast, “Democratic lawmakers on the conference committee
indicated that plenty of options were on the table in talks with
Republican counterparts. But decreasing funding for DHS was not one of
them. The Democrats’ opening bid offers a $589 million increase in the
agency’s budget from the year before.”
With Trump standing firm
in his demand for wall money and Democrats continuing to offer fencing
and technology that rights groups have denounced as ineffective,
immoral, and unconstitutional, progressives celebrated Tlaib,
Ocasio-Cortez, Pressley, and Omar for taking a “principled position”
beyond merely rejecting the president’s outlandish proposal.
“This is exactly the type of leadership we need in Congress,” said Gregory Cendana of United We Dream.
Read the House progressives’ full letter:
Dear Colleagues,
We write to you today seeking your solidarity and support to enter
in to the DHS conference committee process with clear eyes. The next 3
weeks we are tasked with operationalizing our values and addressing the
fall out caused by a reckless administration that has put profits before
people and rhetoric before the lives of immigrant children.
The Department of Homeland Security is tasked with critical functions.
However, under the auspice of the Trump administration, a number of
agencies housed at DHS have abused their authority and the fidelity of
public resources. There is a documented pattern of agencies including
Immigration and Customs Enforcement as well as Customs and Border Patrol
overspending and abusing the transfer authority to quietly move funds
around. Funds are being reallocated internally not to make our nation
safer, but to build desert camps to inhumanely house infants and to
prosecute immigrants who are part of the fabric of our community. These
agencies have promulgated an agenda driven by hate — not strategy. We
call on our colleagues at the negotiating table to adhere to the
following guidelines critical to protecting families and children and
restoring Americans’ faith in government:
Cut, do not
increase funding. A Republican controlled Congress has already sharply
increased DHS spending without clear justification. We have seen rampant
spending on detention facilities for young children — reports indicate
DHS is paying for-profit prison companies upwards of $700 a day to house
children in inhumane facilities. The deal reached by Conference
Committee should not allocate any additional funding to this department
or to the ICE and CBP agencies. The upcoming FY2020 budget process will
be a critical opportunity to take up conversations about reforms to the
agency. In the meantime, not another dollar.
No transfer
authority. The Trump administration continues to use DHS funding as a
slush fund (through transfers or reprogramming) to increase detention
programs and invest in ineffective policies. The conference committee
should prohibit transfers and reprogramming authorities.
Stronger
accountability. Strong report language is critical to ensuring
safeguards to rein in DHS. However, report language is not enough. The
final budget package must be accompanied by stringent oversight
mechanisms, and critical obligations should be in statutory text not
just report language. DHS has a failed track record of missing
congressional deadlines, including when recently required to report on
deaths in custody. For those reasons, the DHS should be taken up as a
separate appropriations bill and accompanied by strong statutory
language that saves lives and increases accountability.
As a
nation, we need comprehensive immigration reform driven by justice and
data. Let us be clear that that process will not play out during the
Conference Committee’s narrow DHS deliberations. The sole focus of this
Conference Committee is to put forward a short term spending package for
7 months. But a budget is a statement of our values. With the world
watching and the lives of families at stake, we should not compromise
our values at the negotiating table.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Jake Johnson is a staff writer for Common Dreams. Follow him on Twitter: @johnsonjakep.
