Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., on Sunday called on House Democrats to vote against a measure that would reopen parts of the federal government Monday, saying a vote in favor would support the tactics of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“I’m a firm no, and I’m going to advocate with colleagues that they vote no,” Khanna told NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” adding, “I just don’t see how, in good conscience, Democrats can vote for continuing ICE funding when they’re killing American citizens.”
Several federal agencies entered a partial government shutdown on Saturday, days after President Donald Trump and Senate Democrats reached a deal to avert an extended government shutdown.
The government shutdown wasn’t immediately halted because House lawmakers were out of town. But the House is expected to vote to reopen the government on Monday, barring any unexpected delays that could extend the shutdown, which currently affects the departments of Homeland Security, Defense, State, Treasury, Transportation, Health and Human Services and Housing and Urban Development.
The deal between Trump and Senate Democrats funds all the affected agencies through September except the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees immigration enforcement agencies including ICE and Customs and Border Protection. The bill passed by the Senate temporarily funds DHS for two weeks, giving both parties time to address Democratic concerns about the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement tactics, which reached a fever pitch in recent weeks after federal agents fatally shot two U.S. citizens, Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good, on the streets of Minneapolis.
Khanna on Sunday called for lawmakers to separate ICE funding from other federal government spending, telling “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker, “We can bracket the ICE funding. We can open the remaining parts of government. There are a lot of other parts of government that we can fund. The ICE issue should be separated.”
“And certainly I don’t think we can be giving a an additional dollar to an agency that is patrolling the streets of not just immigrants, [but] American citizens,” he added.
House Republicans are expected to vote in favor of the measure that passed the Senate, but the majority party’s margin has shrunk in recent weeks following the unexpected death of Rep. Doug LaMalfa, R-Calif., and the resignation of former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., last month.
Still, Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., on Sunday expressed confidence that members of his party would vote to pass the Senate-passed bill this week after lawmakers get back to Washington.
“I’m confident that we’ll do it, at least by Tuesday,” he told “Meet the Press.”
He pointed to his party’s slim margin in the House, projecting confidence that every Republican lawmaker would vote in favor of the measure.
“One-vote margin, yes, for the rest of 2026,” Johnson told Welker, “but we’re going to demonstrate once again that this is the party that takes governing seriously.”
On Sunday, Khanna also reacted to the Justice Department’s latest release of additional documents related to Jeffrey Epstein.
The California lawmaker said the Epstein files’ release is “one of the largest scandals, in my view, in our country’s history, and there is a demand for elite accountability.”
The Justice Department on Friday released millions of pages of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein, including 2,000 videos and 180,000 images.
The newly released documents included photos of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly known as Prince Andrew, leaning over a woman whose face is redacted. Mountbatten-Windsor has repeatedly denied wrongdoing.
The new batch of documents also included emails between Epstein and New York Giants co-owner Steve Tisch, who said he “deeply” regrets his past relationship with Epstein.
Tech mogul Elon Musk’s name also appears in the files in emails from 2012 and 2013 when he tried to coordinate a visit to Epstein’s island. Musk has denied ever attending Epstein’s parties and it’s unclear whether he actually ever visited the island.
On Friday, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said that there was nothing in the latest release of the files that warranted criminal charges against any men and poured cold water on the notion that the Justice Department was in possession of a list of powerful men who abused young women or minors.
“There’s this built-in assumption that somehow there’s this hidden tranche of information of men that we know about, that we’re covering up, or that we’re not, we’re choosing not to prosecute. That is not the case,” Blanche told reporters.
On Sunday, Khanna, who alongside Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., led the charge in Congress last year for the release of the Epstein files, called for the Justice Department to consider bringing charges against the men mentioned in the files. He told “Meet the Press,” “I do think the prosecution needs to look at seriously bringing charges.”
“There’s some people who committed crimes, and that needs to be looked at,” Khanna added, but didn’t specify who in the files he believed committed a crime or what crimes they committed.
But, Khanna added, even those men whose names appeared in the files and don’t warrant criminal prosecution should be scrutinized.
“There’s a broader issue, and that is that there are rich and powerful people who may not have committed a crime, but who are emailing Jeffrey Epstein well after he’s a pedophile, talking about going to his island, talking about wanting to participate in wild parties,” the California congressman said. “And the American people are asking, ‘How are rich and powerful people living in this country? What moral code are they living by?’ Some of those revelations are deeply disturbing.”
Khanna also defended his decision to vote against holding former President Bill Clinton in criminal contempt of Congress, arguing that “it’s premature, in my view, to hold him in criminal contempt,” and saying he favors holding Clinton in civil contempt of Congress.
Clinton appeared multiple times in earlier releases of the Epstein files, including in images with a woman sitting on his lap and in another with a woman in a hot tub. In both instances, the woman’s face was redacted. The former president has denied any wrongdoing and hasn’t been charged with any crimes.
His appearance in the files prompted House Oversight Chair James Comer, R-Ky., to subpoena the former president in an attempt to compel him to testify before members of Congress about his relationship with Epstein.
Clinton did not comply with the subpoena, prompting GOP leaders to seek to hold him in contempt of Congress.
