On Thursday’s “CNN News Central,” Rep. Seth Magaziner (D-RI) said that the DHS shutdown is “because the Trump administration sent an army of masked ICE agents into American neighborhoods, terrorizing people, banging down people’s doors without warrants, shooting American citizens in the street, deporting children, deporting the elderly. And there need to be real reforms.”
Co-host Erica Hill asked, “I also want to talk to you about DHS funding. A deal seems somewhat elusive at this point, as we look at where things stand. And it is really difficult, as you know, especially for TSA workers. This is very real. Punchbowl was reporting that some of your moderate Democratic colleagues in the House were meeting with Sen. Katie Britt (R-AL), apparently initiated by Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ). Do you think the House may actually be the key here to breaking this impasse?”
Magaziner answered, “We are in this situation because the Trump administration sent an army of masked ICE agents into American neighborhoods, terrorizing people, banging down people’s doors without warrants, shooting American citizens in the street, deporting children, deporting the elderly. And there need to be real reforms. Now, the administration, as I understand it, has been willing to have conversations, willing to negotiate to a degree. But when they’ve agreed to make changes to the way that ICE has been operating, they’ve not agreed to put those changes into law. They’ve said, oh, basically, trust us to change the way that we’re managing ICE, and we’re good for it. Well, that’s not good enough, right? We can’t trust them just on faith that they’re going to institute these much-needed reforms. Meanwhile, to your point, TSA workers and other civil servants aren’t getting paid. That’s why I support Rep. Rosa DeLauro’s (D-CT) bill in the House to fund the rest of DHS, fund TSA, fund the Coast Guard, because those workers had nothing to do with any of this, and it’s not their fault that they’re in this terrible situation. But if the administration thinks that we’re just going to continue to throw billions of dollars at ICE without any guardrails, without any accountability, then they’re wrong. We cannot do that, because we all know that, as soon as the funding is restored, that the administration is going to go back to the same brutal tactics that they were using before without accountability, and that’s why we need guardrails in law.”
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