Amna Nawaz:
A partial government shutdown is under way. And with Congress out this week and unlikely to return until next week, many employees of agencies under the Department of Homeland Security will continue working without pay for the foreseeable future.
Congressman Hakeem Jeffries of New York is the top Democrat in the House, and I spoke with him this afternoon.
Leader Jeffries, welcome back to the “News Hour.” Thanks for joining us.
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY):
Good to be with you.
Amna Nawaz:
So, without a funding deal now, we’re in day three of another partial government shutdown. We know Congress is out all week, so does that mean that a shutdown is going to last at least that long?
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries:
Well, as Democrats, we continue to be ready, willing, and able to sit down with our Republican colleagues any time, anyplace in order to make sure that we can get ICE under control.
The American people deserve to have their taxpayer dollars used to make their life more affordable and not to brutalize or kill them, as was tragically the case with Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti.
And we simply believe, as a value proposition, that immigration enforcement in this country, it should be fair, it should be just, and it should be humane. Donald Trump promised to target violent felons who are here illegally. Instead, ICE has been targeting law-abiding immigrant families and brutalizing American communities. That’s unacceptable, and that needs to change.
Amna Nawaz:
In terms of where talks are to get to some kind of deal, though, we know Democrats put forward a list of demands last week. We saw a senior White House official on Thursday say that Democrats had rejected what they called their latest counterproposal.
So, for folks who are already out there working without pay right now, what can you tell them about how much closer you are to a deal today compared to last week?
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries:
It’s very fortunate that Republicans have decided that they would prefer to shut down FEMA, shut down the Coast Guard, and shut down TSA, as opposed to actually getting ICE under control, reining them in, because the American people know they have gone too far, and ensure that ICE and CBP behave like every other law enforcement agency in the country.
That’s the objective that we are trying to achieve. Now, there are several things, commonsense, strong proposals that we have put on the table that to date Republicans have rejected, including a requirement that judicial warrants be obtained before ICE agents can storm the homes of the American people or private property.
We also believe that ICE agents, of course, should be trained, should have a excessive use of force policy that they adhere to, and that they shouldn’t be able to target sensitive locations like schools and hospitals, houses of worship, and polling sites.
And we finally believe, of course, in terms of some of the top-line demands that we have made, is that there should be independent investigations whenever it is the case that ICE agents or CBP agents break state and local law.
Amna Nawaz:
Leader Jeffries, we have reported extensively on, I know, the Democrats’ demands on this case, but are you any closer to a deal? Have you talked to the White House in the last three days?
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries:
I haven’t had direct conversation with the White House. My understanding, Donald Trump was down in Florida on the golf course yesterday, which is exactly what we saw from the president during the 43-day Trump Republican shutdown, a lack of seriousness as it relates to direct engagement between House Democrats and Senate Democrats.
And as I have indicated, though there are staff-to-staff conversations, there have not been any principal-level discussions to date, either with the White House or with House and Senate Republican leaders.
Amna Nawaz:
Can I put to you what your fellow Democrat Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania has said about where things are? He pointed out that the shutdown really is not going to have an impact on ICE, which saw a huge influx of funding from that so-called Big Beautiful Bill.
He said, what’s really doing, as you have pointed out too, is forcing TSA workers to work without pay. FEMA could also be affected. So if ICE reforms are what you want to see here, how does a shutdown that doesn’t really affect the agency get you there?
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries:
First of all, we have until the end of the month to make sure that TSA agents don’t miss a single paycheck, and that is our commitment as Democrats. And we need, of course, Republicans to join us with respect to TSA, along with the Coast Guard and FEMA, the other agencies that are part of the Department of Homeland Security.
John Fetterman, of course, he knows that the one big ugly bill, which every single Democrat and every single — in the House and the Senate voted against, was an egregious piece of legislation that both ripped away Medicaid from about 14 million Americans, a trillion-dollar cut to Medicaid, the largest in American history.
It stole food from the mouths of hungry children, seniors, and veterans with a $186 billion cut to SNAP, which also happens to be the largest in American history, and then used that money to provide massive tax breaks to the GOP’s billionaire donors and to create this $75 billion slush fund for untrained and masked ICE agents to be violently unleashed in American communities.
So, yes, we do have to address the dynamics related to the one big ugly bill, but, at this moment, in the context of the appropriations battle that is in front of us, we have an opportunity to make bold, transformational, and meaningful changes in the law that will actually immediately impact how ICE agents are permitted to conduct themselves.
Amna Nawaz:
That’s House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries joining us today.
Leader Jeffries, thank you. Good to speak with you.
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries:
Thank you.
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