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Both of Oregon’s U.S. senators are among the growing opposition to a funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security, as outrage over federal killings in Minnesota builds to a showdown in Congress.
This week, senators are set to vote on an appropriations package that contains six funding bills, including one for DHS. In separate votes on Thursday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the majority of the package with a vote of 341 to 88, but the DHS portion of the bill passed with much narrower margins, at 220 to 207.
Republicans now face a steep challenge passing the $64.4 billion DHS spending package, $10 billion of which would be directed to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The bill will require 60 votes to pass—that means it needs bipartisan support.
But it comes to the chambers in the wake of the fatal ICE shooting of Alex Pretti, a 37 year old ICU nurse, in Minneapolis on Jan. 24, the latest escalation in a string of immigration crackdowns nationwide that have turned increasingly violent. Video footage has since undercut many of the federal government’s initial claims about Pretti, including that he was brandishing a gun. (He was holding a mobile phone, and he had been disarmed before agents started firing.) Across the country, public outrage has grown over ICE’s actions in Minneapolis.
Pretti’s death marked the second killing of a U.S. citizen at the hands of ICE this month, after an agent shot Renee Nicole Good on Jan. 7. Good was also 37.
Sens. Ron Wyden and Sen. Jeff Merkley have told WW they plan to vote against the DHS spending bill.
Wyden says the Senate has “absolutely no business” approving funding for DHS without “sufficient guardrails against these heinous and intolerable ICE abuses in Minneapolis, Portland and far too many other cities across America.”
Wyden says he’s working with fellow senators to push for reforms including requiring ICE agents to wear their uniforms and display their badges, and is also pushing against racial profiling of people during ICE operations.
He adds: “I’m also battling for the rights of elected officials to visit immigration detention sites and for local communities in Oregon to refuse the sitting of detention facilities in their towns. I’d also add that I’m keeping receipts on who’s issuing these orders under Trump—as well as who’s following those orders. I’m putting all those people on notice: the courts are not going to forget who broke the law in Oregon, Minnesota or anywhere else in America.”
Merkley says the Trump administration has used ICE to “terrorize communities,” while denying people due process and often resorting to violence.
“I oppose giving one more penny to ICE, which already got $75 billion from Trump and Republicans in the Big Ugly Betrayal bill,” Merkley said. “As long as more funding for ICE is in the DHS bill, I will vote against it.”
Whether the congressional standoff leads to a government shutdown remains to be seen. NBC reports that Senate Democrats have plans to advocate for separating out DHS from the spending bills for other agencies in a similar fashion—trying to limit the consequences of a partial government shutdown. (That decision is ultimately up to the Republican majority leader.)
Aaron Mesh contributed reporting.
