Is Now the Time to Demand a Clawback of the ICE BBB Slush Fund?
Allison Gill
As you probably know by now, a lot of the government is set to shut down on January 31st without funding, and at least 7 democrats are needed to advance the package in the Senate. It may be more if a couple of republicans are no votes.
The 6 bills that have been lumped together to vote on include T-HUD, SFOP’s (State and Foreign Operations), Labor-HHS-Ed, FSGG (General Government like DC and the Executive Office of the President, and the courts), Defense, and DHS.
However, ICE - which is part of DHS - receives supplemental funds from the Big Ugly Bill, and those funds are available during a shutdown. So keep that in mind. If the government shuts down, ICE continues to be fully funded and unrestricted - detention centers, operations, flights, payroll, all of it. CBP is also funded during a shutdown by the BBB with a ~$60B slush fund.
Right now, Democrats are circling around 5 demands to reform ICE/CBP that would be needed to secure their votes for cloture on this funding package. There’s not a final list yet, but most seem to agree on these 5. According to Senator Chris Murphy, who appeared with Greg Sargent on an episode of The Daily Blast, those five demands include:
DHS must cooperate with State investigations
Customs and Border Protection stays at the border
Judicial warrants required for arrest
Officer identification and body worn cameras
Agents out of churches and schools
https://www.muellershewrote.com/p/is-now-the-time-to-demand-a-clawback
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