Sonora, CA – Mother Lode Congressman Tom McClintock called for increased funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
Currently, DHS funding is at a standstill due to party gridlock, leading to a partial government shutdown. The House approved a short-term plan to fund the entire department through May 22. However, the Senate approved a separate, partial funding package that excluded key immigration agencies, including the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP). McClintock issued the following statement on the matter:
“If we don’t enforce our immigration laws, we have no immigration laws. If we have no immigration laws, we have no border. And if we have no border, we have no country.
Yet that is the clear objective of congressional Democrats. They propose to completely defund the agencies that enforce our immigration laws. That’s right there in the Senate bill: zero dollars to ICE and CBP.
The Democrats then vow to block any funding unless we make it impossible for these agencies to take illegal aliens into custody. That’s what their demand to replace administrative warrants with judicial warrants is all about. Deportation is not a punishment and removal is not a criminal matter. Since it’s not a judicial matter, a judicial warrant isn’t available. The Democrats know this – that’s why they’re demanding it.
They cannot say they want to defund the agencies responsible for deporting illegal aliens, or to make it impossible for them to take those aliens into custody, and at the same time tell us they’re for secure borders. They’re not. Four years under Biden made that clear – and their position today makes it equally clear they haven’t changed.
This issue represents a fundamental and irreconcilable difference between the two parties today. Ultimately, it is up to voters to resolve.”
