ICE Should Be Ripped 'Down to Studs,' Abolished Says Rep.-Elect Christian Menefee

Representative-elect Christian Menefee, a Texas Democrat, said he wouldn't vote for funding the Department of Homeland Security without restrictions on immigration enforcement and called for disbanding the "radicalized" Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Menefee said that ICE should be 'ripped down to studs' and reimagined as a security force that ensures communities are protected. In Menefee's first national interview since his election to office Saturday night he said that he is also focused on extending ACA subsidies as people in his district see their health insurance premiums rise.

Political turmoil in the US House over President Donald Trump’s immigration raids risks prolonging a partial government shutdown that began Saturday.

Speaker Mike Johnson faces a tricky path to clear a Senate-passed spending package — the product of a negotiation between Trump and Democratic leader Chuck Schumer. That bill would fund most agencies through Sept. 30, and the Department of Homeland Security through Feb. 13, preserving funding for immigration raids while both parties negotiate changes to enforcement policies.

Yet the bill faces a revolt from within both parties, possibly extending what was hoped to be a brief weekend shutdown. Johnson expects the Rules Committee to conduct an initial vote on Monday, and said he hopes final passage would happen on Tuesday.

The Labor Department announced Monday that its closely watched jobs report, due Friday, will be delayed. The tax filing season, which kicked off last week, could be hampered. And government contractors’ pay and service delays would spread the longer the funding lapse continues. Non-essential government workers would be furloughed.

Democrats, aware of public outrage over the administration’s methods in cracking down on immigration, want to prevent more killings by masked, armed agents in cities like Minneapolis, where two US citizens have been shot dead. Conservatives worry that by supporting Trump’s agreement to place limits on agents’ behavior, they would be abandoning their core campaign promises.

Progressive Democrats say they will not vote for even two weeks of DHS funding until Trump agrees to impose new limits on immigration raids.

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