Are Democrats Going to Vote for More Money for ICE?

"Early Saturday morning, it appeared as if enough Senate Democrats were willing to fund the Department of Homeland Security and its deportation machine, if that's what it took to keep the rest of the government open. How quickly things change. The House had passed funding for the DHS late last week, with seven centrist Democrats joining nearly all Republicans to get it over the line. The Senate was to take it up this week alongside a handful of other funding bills."

"Democratic negotiators felt that approving full-year, carefully negotiated spending bills and reasserting Congress' power of the purse over a freewheeling executive branch was the priority of the moment. "There is much more we must do to rein in DHS, which I will continue to press for," Sen. Patty Murray, the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, said in a statement last Tuesday, once the deal was released. She listed some pittances she had secured in the DHS bill, such as more money for body cameras for Immigrations and Customs Enforcement. She knew, though, that wouldn't ease any anger within the base. Ultimately, she leveled. "But the hard truth," she added, "is that Democrats must win political power to enact the kind of accountability we need.""

Early Saturday morning it appeared as if enough Senate Democrats were willing to fund the Department of Homeland Security and its deportation machine to keep the rest of the government open. The House had passed DHS funding with seven centrist Democrats joining nearly all Republicans. The Senate planned to take up DHS alongside other funding bills, and negotiators prioritized full-year, negotiated appropriations and congressional control over spending. Sen. Patty Murray secured modest reforms such as funding for ICE body cameras but warned that Democrats need political power to achieve accountability. The killing of Alex Pretti by Border Patrol agents and video of him being pepper-sprayed and repeatedly shot changed the political calculus.

Read at Slate Magazine