Republicans can fund ICE for an entire decade without a single Dem vote: Sen Cruz
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, is calling for Republicans to provide Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) with enough funding to last a decade.He believes Republicans can do that without the support...
By Fox News · Fox News
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, is calling for Republicans to provide Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) with enough funding to last a decade. He believes Republicans can do that without the support of a single Democrat. "We can do it with just 50 votes," Cruz said. Lawmakers in the Senate agreed early on Friday to advance funding for DHS that includes the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), the Coast Guard, the Secret Service and seven other agencies — even as gridlock over ICE remains firmly in place. SCHUMER, DEMS BLOCK DHS FUNDING AGAIN, TRUMP INTERVENES TO PAY TSA AGENTS Cruz believes that Democrat opposition to funding the agency will only continue, promoting the possibility of future shutdowns. "I think we may very well be in a world where these Senate Democrats will never again vote to fund ICE, that they're simply saying, ‘shut down,’" Cruz said. Like the rest of DHS, funding for ICE lapsed on February 14 when Democrats made their support for the agency conditional on a set of 10 operational reforms. Among other items, Democrats had called for a ban on masks for ICE agents, stiffer warrant requirements for apprehending suspects in public, a ban on roaming patrols and requirements for clearly visible identification — demands Republicans argued would handcuff Trump’s immigration enforcement goals. Cruz believes Republicans can still advance funding without meeting any of those demands through a process called "reconciliation" that would allow Republicans to get around a filibuster. "You need 60 votes to pass funding for the government. We only have 53 Republicans, and so we need at least seven Democrats. Reconciliation, which is how we passed the [Big Beautiful Bill] last year, we can do with just Republicans," Cruz said. DHS SHUTDOWN BREAKTHROUGH COMES AT COST FOR REPUBLICANS AS FUNDING FIGHTS NEARS END THUNE, GOP BLAST DEMS IN DHS STANDOFF AS LANKFORD SAYS THEY FEAR ICE OVER IRAN "And so, what I've argued to my colleagues is let's take up reconcil…