Anti-ICE rhetoric will see ‘harsh debate’ in upcoming Senate vote: Byron York
Byron York says Democrats are sharply divided over funding Immigration and Customs enforcement (ICE), setting up a “harsh debate” in the Senate when the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding bill reaches that chamber. House Democrats pulled the DHS measure from a minibus after an ICE-related shooting in Minneapolis, and the Senate will need 60 votes to advance whatever bill emerges.
Some Senate Democrats, including Ruben Gallego and Chris Murphy, are pushing to restrain ICE, while others oppose abolishing or defunding the agency and favor funding it. York argued most Americans support ICE’s role in apprehending criminal undocumented immigrants, but there is disagreement over how to treat noncriminal undocumented peopel – a split he calls a fundamental dividing line in the party that could alarm moderates and independents.
The controversy has wider political and security fallout: Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer urged the president to withdraw immigration agents from major cities, the Pentagon has kept about 1,500 active-duty troops on standby for possible deployment to Minnesota, and local officials in Minneapolis have urged calm amid protests and disruptions, including temporary hotel closures.
Anti-ICE rhetoric will see ‘harsh debate’ in upcoming Senate vote: Byron York
Washington Examiner chief political correspondent Byron York said there is “division” within the Democratic Party over the funding of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
House Democrats asked that a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security be removed from a “minibus” after the ICE shooting in Minneapolis this month. As the Senate waits for the bill to fund DHS, Sen. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) said Sunday he is speaking with Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), who wrote on X that Senate Democrats cannot vote for a DHS budget that doesn’t “restrain” the agency.
York said that this DHS bill, should it get to the Senate, will require the necessary 60 votes to pass, ahead of which there will be a “real harsh debate.”
“Because I think most people would agree that the American people support the work of ICE in rounding up criminal illegal aliens,” York said on Fox News’s America Reports Monday. “On that other issue that I was talking about, people who are in the United States illegally but have not committed additional crimes, there is some disagreement on that, and I think it’s going to play out in the Senate debate over this.”
York also said the split among Democrats regarding ICE is the “fundamental dividing line,” predicting some Democrats will look to “abolish” the agency while others will seek to fund it. He said that the latter group will provide “enough” votes, combined with all Republicans, to advance the funding to the Senate.
York added that the Democrats are vehemently opposed to ICE “scares” moderates within the party who are concerned about this mindset pushing away independent voters.
MINNESOTA HOTELS SHUT DOWN AMID ICE PROTESTS OVER ‘HEIGHTENED PUBLIC SAFETY CONCERNS’
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) asked President Donald Trump to withdraw immigration agents from major cities during a visit to the White House on Thursday. Schumer told the president that the ICE raids are “dangerous and putting more people at risk.”
The Pentagon has ordered roughly 1,500 active-duty troops to remain on standby for a possible deployment to Minnesota, the state where the ICE shooting occurred in Minneapolis. Jacob Frey, the city’s mayor, said Sunday that the city will not “take the bait” and counter Trump’s “chaos with our own brand of chaos here.”
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