Dems Rebuke GOP for Using Trump's Illegal Iran Invasion to Push DHS Funding

As the US Senate took up the issue of Department of Homeland Security funding on Thursday, three weeks into a partial shutdown of the agency, Democrats in Congress rejected Republicans' suggestions that restoring funding to DHS is key to keeping Americans safe amid President Donald Trump's war on Iran.

The war started last weeked after negotiations on Iran's nuclear program were reportedly making progress toward a deal; despite that, Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu began launching strikes that have now killed more than 1,000 people in the Middle Eastern country.

Trump and top White House officials have insisted Iran posted an "imminent threat" and Republicans in Congress this week have used similar rhetoric about the country to demand that Democrats fund DHS, which includes the Transportation Security Administration, the Coast Guard, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, as well as the two agencies that led Democrats to reject funding the department in recent weeks, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

The latter two agencies have led Trump's mass deportation and detention campaign across the country, with thousands of federal agents deployed to cities where they've carried out roving patrols, engaged in racial profiling, assaulted protesters, and fatally shot at least eight people including three US citizens.

The House passed a measure to fund DHS through September earlier this year, before legal observer Alex Pretti became the third American to be shot and killed by federal agents. Seven Democrats joined the Republican Party in passing the bill.

That bill failed in the Senate for a third time on Thursday, and the House was set to vote on a similar proposal later in the afternoon.

On Wednesday, House Speaker Mike Johnson (D-La.) accused Democrats of "playing political games" and refusing to protect Americans by funding DHS.

"Now is the time to be vigilant at home and to ensure that all of our doors are locked, so to speak," Johnson said. "Obviously everyone understands that it's a heightened threat environment. Global tensions are high, threats are constantly evolving and America's adversaries are watching for any sign of weakness on our part."

Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) said it was "absolutely ludicrous" for Republicans to suggest "that we should fund an agency that is killing Americans here at home because this president has launched an illegal war of choice abroad."

Democrats and rights advocates have warned that under the second Trump administration, DHS has done little to keep Americans safe. At least 170 US citizens have been arrested or detained by immigration agents, and the agency's own records call into question the White House's frequent claim that it is targeting the "worst of the worst" violent criminals.

The Cato Institute found in November that between October 1-November 15, only 5% of people booked into ICE detention had violent criminal convictions, and 73% had no convictions at all.

In the House on Wednesday, Rep. Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.) said Democrats would "continue to oppose this terrible Homeland bill because they're trying to use ICE and CBP money against US citizens."

"Their policies are the problem," said Aguilar.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) said that it was "insane" for the Republicans to push for DHS funding amid Trump's war on Iran, which experts have said clearly violates international law including the United Nations Charter."

"Donald Trump launches an unauthorized war in the Middle East, he characterizes it as endless, he decides that he wants to spend billions of dollars to bomb Iran, rather than spend taxpayer dollars to lower the grocery bills that are crushing the American people, and then wants to use his unauthorized war as an excuse to continue spending taxpayer dollars to brutalize or kill American citizens by continuing to unleash ICE without restriction on the American people," Jeffries said Tuesday. "Make it make sense, because it does not."