On Wednesday’s broadcast of NPR’s “Morning Edition,” Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-NY) discussed legislation on the DHS shutdown with Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA) that includes some changes to ICE and said that “the leverage that exists right now is just that the people are, like, what’s wrong with you guys? What are you letting this go on and on for? And the people are looking at the lines at the airport and they’re looking at what’s going on with the bad behavior of ICE, and they’re saying, can’t you guys just fix this?”
Co-host Michel Martin asked, “The proposal that you’re making would include full funding of TSA and FEMA, all these other agencies that are now affected by this partial government shutdown. And coupled with that, you would have some reforms to the way ICE operates. The question I have is, what’s the leverage? Because ICE is already being funded. These other entities are not.”
Suozzi answered, “Right now, ICE is operating unimpeded. All these other Department of Homeland Security officers, the TSA guys are not getting their paychecks, the Coast Guard’s not getting their paychecks, etc., etc. ICE is getting their paychecks, because when they did what’s called the Big, Beautiful Bill, they funded ICE with $75 billion. So, the leverage that exists right now is just that the people are, like, what’s wrong with you guys? What are you letting this go on and on for? And the people are looking at the lines at the airport and they’re looking at what’s going on with the bad behavior of ICE, and they’re saying, can’t you guys just fix this?”
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