On the Senate floor Thursday, U.S. Sen. Bernie Moreno tried to win approval of a two-week funding plan for Homeland Security, arguing Congress should pay federal workers who are going to work — while looking for a broader deal to end this funding impasse.
“There has been no movement among Democrats,” Moreno said on the Senate floor, frustration obvious in his voice.
After Democrats blocked Moreno’s bill, he returned the favor, by preventing action on their plan to pay airport screeners, but not the full Department of Homeland Security.
“It’s a shame politics got in the way of helping working Americans,” Moreno fumed. “It’s a disgrace.”
But Democrats — still furious over the killing of two U.S. citizens by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis in January — don’t want to give money to ICE, without reforms to make agents operate more like local police departments.
“Fund the law-abiding agencies of DHS now,” said U.S. Rep. Greg Landsman, D-Cincinnati (whose district includes Warren County).
Democrats have called for federal immigration agents to display visible identification, not use masks, wear body cameras, and require judicial warrants for searches at homes and businesses.
The White House has resisted most of those changes, and so, the shutdown goes on, hitting FEMA, the Coast Guard, and the Transportation Security Administration, which provides airport screening.
“Even airline CEOs are demanding Democrats end their DHS shutdown,” said U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Urbana.
As Moreno tried to find a way out of the impasse on Thursday, there were some hopeful signs just down the hallway in the U.S. Capitol, as White House border czar Tom Homan met with key senators from both parties.
“We’re going to keep having discussions,” Homan told reporters who mobbed him as he left a closed-door meeting.
It was the first substantive meeting in weeks over the shutdown that began on Feb. 15.
Despite political pressure about security delays at airports, Democrats have held fast to their demands for change on immigration enforcement.
“Republicans refuse to rein in ICE and they’ve shut down DHS to block any changes,” said U.S. Rep. Shontel Brown, D-Cleveland.
Democrats were incensed this week at one offer made by the White House, which would ensure that the Trump administration would not deport U.S. citizens.
“Pledging not to deport U.S. citizens is not a concession,” said U.S. Rep. Chuy Garcia, D-Illinois. “It’s the law.”
There is growing pressure to find a deal — with Congress scheduled to leave for a two-week Easter break on March 27.
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