WASHINGTON — House Democratic leaders told their members in a closed-door meeting Wednesday they will vote no on a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security over concerns it doesn’t do enough to rein in Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to two sources in the room.
Their position suggests an overwhelming majority of the 213 House Democrats will vote against the DHS bill, reflecting the party's outrage after an ICE officer fatally shot a Minneapolis woman this month.
"In the last 24 hours, we've heard our members speak loudly that ICE isn't doing enough, these reforms aren't doing enough. This lawlessness has to stop," Democratic Caucus Chairman Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., told reporters after the meeting. "And they are only doing this because they can. They are only doing this because the president of the United States wants to use them to terrorize communities, to terrorize U.S. citizens."
Aguilar, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., and Whip Katherine Clark, D-Mass., all announced their no votes Wednesday.
But Democratic opposition won't likely be enough to block funding for DHS and ICE. Democratic leaders have no plans to whip against the legislation, the two sources said, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share private discussions. That will free up some moderate Democrats who are facing tough re-election bids to join with Republicans and support it.
In fact, Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, the top Democrat on the Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security, urged his colleagues in the closed-door meeting to support the DHS funding bill, which he negotiated with Republicans.
Cuellar touted some wins in the bill for Democrats, and urged his colleagues to vote for their district, the sources said.
Specifically, Democrats secured $20 million for the “procurement, deployment, and operations of body worn cameras” for ICE personnel, Democrats on the Appropriations Committee noted in a release. And while it keeps the overall $10 billion ICE budget flat, the legislation cuts funding for ICE enforcement and removal operations by $115 million and reduces the number of ICE detention beds by 5,500.
Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., the top Democratic appropriator who negotiated the package of spending bills, which would fund the departments of Labor, Health and Human Services and Defense, in addition to DHS, argued that the bipartisan, bicameral deal would avert a partial government shutdown next week.
Still, she acknowledged the DHS bill did not include broad reforms to ICE. Part of the agreement, she said, was that the Republican majority would allow Democrats to vote on the DHS bill separately from the larger package.
Even as she touted the deal, DeLauro would not commit to voting for the DHS bill.
"We didn't get what we fought for ... when it goes to Stephen Miller in the White House, who are calling the shots, you know," DeLauro explained Tuesday night. "But is there something good for TSA? Is there something good for FEMA, if your house is blown up? Is there something good for the Coast Guard?"
She added that, with the shutdown deadline of Jan. 30 fast approaching, negotiators needed to act: "I signed off. Let's go. Let's move. And people will decide what they want to."
