House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries explained why Democrats are refusing to vote for the latest Homeland Security funding bill until changes are made to ICE’s immigration enforcement activity. “Unfortunately, we haven’t heard back from the White House or Mike Johnson or Leader Thune in terms of the demands that we have put on the table, commonsense demands on behalf of the American people,” he said. “In our view, the ball is in the court right now of the Republicans. Either they’re going to agree to dramatically reform the way in which ICE and other immigration enforcement agencies are conducting themselves so that they’re behaving like every other law enforcement agency in the country, or they’re making the explicit decision to shut down the Coast Guard, shut down FEMA, and shut down TSA, and that would be very unfortunate.”

DANA BASH, CNN: I want to start with what you released this past week, a list of 10 proposed reforms, including, but not limited to a mandate for judicial warrants to search private property and a ban on masks, also a mandate for agents to wear body cameras. Now, Republicans say they are open to some of these, but others, especially the specifics on judicial warrants, are nonstarters. Only five days now until the Department of Homeland Security will shut down. Are you willing to accept anything less than this full list of demands? REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES: Not at this point. We start with a basic premise that taxpayer dollars should be used to make life more affordable for everyday Americans, not brutalize or kill American citizens like Renee Nicole Good or Alex Pretti. We know that ICE is completely and totally out of control. They have gone way too far, and the American people want them reined in, because immigration enforcement should be fair, it should be just, and it should be humane. So, dramatic changes are necessary to the manner in which the Department of Homeland Security officers are conducting themselves before any funding bill should move forward. BASH: So, you say very clearly that this — and it’s clear in your proposals — this is about reining in ICE and the CBP. But those agencies, as you well know, are very well funded already through the Big Beautiful Bill Act. That’s what the president called it. And it passed last year. So what that means is that a shutdown would really only impact unrelated agencies, FEMA, TSA, FAA. So how is pushing for these changes and potentially not getting there help rein in an immigration crackdown? JEFFRIES: Well, our plan is to get there on behalf of the American people. That’s why we need to press forward aggressively and ensure that there are legislative changes enacted as part of any DHS spending bill, because that’s the way that you change behavior. And these are commonsense changes, things like mandatory body cameras. Judicial warrants should absolutely be required before ICE agents can storm private property and rip everyday Americans out of their homes in such a violent fashion. Of course, we need to make sure that there are no masks, so that ICE is conducting itself like every other law enforcement agency in the country. That shouldn’t be controversial. It shouldn’t be controversial that we are demanding that the Fourth Amendment constitutional protections are adhered to as it relates to the way in which ICE is conducting itself. We also need to make sure that state and local officials have the ability to conduct independent investigations, so that, when ICE or CBP or other officers violate the law, they can be investigated and prosecuted and held accountable for those violations of state and local law, not being able to govern themselves with impunity, which is the case right now. BASH: Just real quick, are there any negotiations going on about these reforms that you want? JEFFRIES: Unfortunately, we haven’t heard back from the White House or Mike Johnson or Leader Thune in terms of the demands that we have put on the table, commonsense demands on behalf of the American people. And so, in our view, the ball is in the court right now of the Republicans. Either they’re going to agree to dramatically reform the way in which ICE and other immigration enforcement agencies are conducting themselves so that they’re behaving like every other law enforcement agency in the country, or they’re making the explicit decision to shut down the Coast Guard, shut down FEMA, and shut down TSA, and that would be very unfortunate.

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