Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Tuesday dismissed a plan backed by House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.) to fund agencies within the Department of Homeland Security other than Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP), dubbing it an effort to “defund the police.”
Jeffries on Monday launched a discharge petition effort to try to force a vote on legislation to fund a large portion of DHS — including the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and the Coast Guard — as Democrats continue to seek reforms to immigration enforcement and refuse to fund the agency. It needs 218 signatures, requiring support from a handful of Republicans, to force action.
Johnson noted that Republicans have passed full DHS funding in the House multiple times without support from Democratic leaders.
“Now, instead of doing what’s right and putting an end to this charade, Democrats insist on tearing the bill apart piece by piece,” Johnson said.
“The discharge petition is really a petition to defund the police,” Johnson said. “The law enforcement agencies that are part of the Department of Homeland Security or what they are targeting.”
Johnson accused Democrats of refusing to fund TSA, FEMA and the Coast Guard “unless they can reopen our borders to illegal aliens.”
Johnson was echoing House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.), who earlier in the Tuesday press conference called the Democratic proposal a “defund the police discharge.”
“One of the dumbest political ideas may be in the history of American politics — but the Democrats aren’t done with it,” Scalise said. “Now that you’re in another moment of Democrat-created chaos, what is their answer? To defund law enforcement again.”
The Department of Homeland Security has now gone more than a month without funding as Democrats demand immigration reforms, marking the third-longest government shutdown in U.S. history.
The shutdown has forced workers in the agency to work without pay, leading to resignations and absences of TSA officers and resulting in long lines at airports.