Senate Democrats say they want to end the government shutdown but have repeatedly blocked GOP attempts to reopen the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) as they push for immigration enforcement reforms.
On Friday, Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., said at a news conference following an antisemitic attack on the Temple Israel synagogue in her state that “certainly” Congress must fund DHS.
However, Slotkin and most Senate Democrats have voted four times to block DHS funding, including several attempts to temporarily reopen the agency while negotiations continue.
Slotkin is just one of several Senate Democrats calling for an end to the shutdown. Republicans argue the votes are part of a broader Democratic strategy to blame them for blocking efforts to reopen DHS.
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Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., accused Democrats of trying to shift blame for the shutdown.
“Well, that’s what they do, right? And they’re good at it. They’re really good at it,” he told Fox News Digital. “And the big difference is they have 90% of the legacy media backing them up.”
“So it’s hard, but again, four times this afternoon, the Democrats voted against funding DHS,” he continued.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., accused Republicans of using the federal workers of a variety of agencies under DHS, like the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) as “hostages.”
“I remind my Republican colleagues, we’re going to be back here again and again, winning this debate and eventually winning the American people,” Schumer said.
But Slotkin and others are now signaling an openness to funding Customs and Border Protection (CBP), which many Democrats have sought to deny federal funding to, in addition to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
“We need, in my view, to cut away all the conversation on ICE, which is its own conversation,” Slotkin said at the news conference.
Republicans have sharply criticized Democrats for denying funding to DHS despite a series of terror-related attacks across the country and a heightened threat environment amid the U.S.-Israeli conflict involving Iran.
An alleged ISIS-inspired bomb plot in New York City and a deadly shooting involving a convicted Islamic State supporter at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, rocked the country last week.
Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., said he supports funding DHS after voting against full-year appropriations for the department Thursday.
“I think we should,” Warner replied when asked if Democrats should break the deadlock by CBS News’ Margaret Brennan on Sunday.
“What we have offered is let’s pay TSA, let’s pay FEMA, let’s pay … the Coast Guard, let’s pay CISA. I’d even say let’s pay Customs and Border Patrol,” Warner said. “If we can’t agree on ICE reforms, let’s pay everybody else.”
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However, it is not clear that enough Democrats would be willing to fund CBP while still negotiating reforms to ICE to end the shutdown. Sen. John Fetterman, D-Pa., has been the lone Democrat so far to cross-party lines and support a full-year DHS appropriations bill.
“Democrats’ position is simple: we want reforms to rein in ICE and Border Patrol,” Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said on the Senate floor Thursday. “We also want TSA and FEMA funded — but we are not going to be blackmailed into cutting a blank check for ICE to get it done.”
Senate Republicans have rejected Democrats’ attempts to fund every agency under DHS except for those handling immigration enforcement.
Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., last week blocked an effort by Murray to fund the non-immigration portions of DHS.
Republicans’ resistance to efforts to partially reopen the agency comes as negotiations between the White House and Democrats have stalled.
“Members need to get in a room, have tough conversations, and figure out a pathway for the American people,” Britt told Fox News Digital. “Their safety and security should matter more than politics in November, and unfortunately, Democrats continue to try to take hostages.”
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