A Democratic lawmaker is vowing to shut down the government in the coming weeks if Republicans don’t repeal funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
On Monday’s broadcast of CNN International’s “The Brief,” Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-AZ) stated that “ICE is a rogue agency” and “unless they’re going to take away funding from ICE, which they quadrupled in the last budget, then I do not intend to vote for this budget.”
“ICE is a rogue agency with now so many agents and officers who feel extremely emboldened, are completely in lockstep with Donald Trump and Stephen Miller’s extremely racist mass deportation policy, and I was gutted by this news today,” she said after discussing a recent Supreme Court ruling on ICE, allowing the agency to consider ethnicity when searching for people in the country illegally.
“This is now another step in complete approval and legalizing Donald Trump and Stephen Miller’s racist agenda. And it starts in Los Angeles, and they’re going to feel emboldened to do this in many other places. And I’m concerned about a district like mine in Phoenix, Arizona, where we are a district where more than 64 languages are spoken, a diverse community,” she continued.
Host Jim Sciutto then asked, “Looking ahead, you have another shutdown, government shutdown looming. As you know, Democrats went along with Republicans to fund the government in the spring. Should they do so again now, or should they refuse, and, in effect, shut the government down to block policies, well, like ICE, that you’re talking about here?”
“[F]irst of all, this is not our responsibility, in the sense that the Republicans have control of all three branches,” Ansari responded. “They have the presidency, the Senate, and Congress. So, if they have a budget that they want to pass, they can always do so.”
Then she added after Sciutto noted Republicans will need some Democratic votes: “Correct. And, again, my view is unless they are going to roll back some of the egregious policies that they passed a couple of weeks ago, unless they’re going to make sure that Medicaid isn’t cut, unless they’re going to take away funding from ICE, which they quadrupled in the last budget, then I do not intend to vote for this budget.”