Members approved the budget settlement recommendation, urging hours of Democrats.
Members of the House of Representatives’ Homeland Security Committee advanced a list of budget adjustment recommendations on April 29th.
The panel also approved $5 billion for customs and border security facilities, $6 billion for agency staff and vehicles, nearly $4 billion for technology enhancements, and $950 million for grant programs.
“It’s important that the Republican majority do what people choose for us. We approve funds for effective border security and enforcement measures. That’s what these recommendations do.”
Congress approved the budget blueprint approved by President Donald Trump earlier this month. Lawmakers are now fine-tuning details of their plans through the settlement process. This will allow the Senate budget bill to pass without a simple majority vote and a 60 vote hurdle for the filibuster.
The committee voted 18-14 votes to report recommendations to the Budget Committee after shooting down countless amendments proposed by Democrats to limit the use of funds for certain immigration enforcement measures.
Some of these revisions were proposed by Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.). He accused the Trump administration and Homeland Security Secretary Christie Norm of “engaging in unconstitutional, illegal and inhumane activities.
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“The administration is committed to legal immigration, but has brutally cancelled the appointment of thousands of immigrants who have legally begun exiles in our country,” Ramirez said. “Trump and Noem denied a two-year-old child, a fundamental right to face immigration lawsuits with lawyers, including children undergoing cancer treatment.”
The lawmaker’s comments follow reports that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials have recently deported three Honduras women and took the children of young American citizens.
One of the rejected amendments proposed by Rep. Troy Carter (D-La.) would have banned the administration from using recommended homeland security funds to deport minors U.S. citizens. Various other proposed changes included provisions that prohibit the use of funds to deport people without a due process or send US citizens to foreign prisons.
“We know we don’t agree with everything. But if we don’t agree with anything else, can we at least agree not to send citizens to us to corrupt in foreign prisons?” asked Sen. Seth Magaziner, Dr.I. after suggesting the amendment.
Federal law already prohibits deportation of US citizens, with rare exceptions.
Democrats controlled most of the seven-hour meeting with their revisions and protests to the administration’s approach to law enforcement. But Rep. Benny Thompson (D-Miss.), the top Democrat on the committee, suggested that the silence of his Republican colleagues was the same evidence of their discomfort.
“You don’t know a good guy, a bad guy!” said the chairman.
Under the previous administration, “13 million people were poured into this country because you completely ignored the rule of law.
“I think I’m laughing myself,” he said of the complaint.
Arjun Singh, Jackson Richman and Joseph Lord contributed to this report.
