In the wake of another fatal shooting in Minneapolis by federal agents, Senators Cory Booker and Andy Kim have both vowed to oppose a looming bill funding the Department of Homeland Security, saying that the agency cannot be trusted and must be reined in.
The senators’ eight Democratic House colleagues unanimously opposed the DHS funding bill when it came up for a vote on Thursday. Unlike in the House, however, Democrats in the Senate have the ability to block bills if they so choose thanks to the 60-vote filibuster threshold; Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer announced earlier today that his caucus “will not provide” the votes needed to approve the DHS bill.
“Congress must not continue funding an out of control and unaccountable DHS and ICE that have repeatedly escalated violence and so severely broken laws and Constitutional protections,” Booker said in a statement posted to social media.
“I’m not voting to fund this lawless violence,” Kim concurred. “Trump’s abuse of power is tearing us apart. We have three years left of this presidency, and either we stand up and protect our democracy now, or we risk going down a path that is unthinkable, will hurt countless people and do irreversible damage to our country.”
To be sure, Kim and Booker were both likely to oppose the bill even before the Minneapolis shooting, which the Trump administration has justified as a self-defense measure, though video evidence contradicts their claims. After visiting several existing or proposed New Jersey immigrant detention facilities earlier this week, Booker said that “DHS and ICE are out of control.”
The shooting, though, appears to have galvanized many of their more moderate Democratic colleagues into opposing the bill as well, depriving Republicans of the necessary 60 votes. One open question is whether Democrats’ opposition to DHS funding will sink a broader government funding package slated to come before the Senate this week; if the DHS bill remains a part of that package, a partial government shutdown may begin at the end of the month.
And for some of New Jersey’s more progressive Democrats, withholding funding for DHS isn’t enough. Four of the state’s Democratic representatives, either in conversations with the New Jersey Globe earlier this week or in statements posted after today’s shooting, have called for abolishing ICE in its current form: Reps. Donald Norcross (D-Camden), Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-Ewing), LaMonica McIver (D-Newark), and Rob Menendez (D-Jersey City).
“If Minnesota is where the fight for the soul [of] our nation is going to be then I will go back again and again until ICE is out of Minnesota,” Menendez said. “And I will keep fighting until ICE is out of all of our communities. And I will keep fighting until ICE no longer exists.”
Two of New Jersey’s Republican congressmen, Reps. Chris Smith (R-Manchester) and Tom Kean Jr. (R-Westfield), have not yet released any public statements on the shooting (or on the prior fatal Minneapolis shooting earlier this month). Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-Dennis), however, made a Fox News appearance in which he blamed Minnesota’s Democratic leaders for the tragedy and repeated DHS’s much-disputed assertion that the man killed today posed a threat to law enforcement.
“Don’t let the left kid you that this is just a normal protest where people are peacefully protesting. No it’s not,” Van Drew said. “Peaceful protesters don’t have nine-millimeter weapons with two extra magazines… This is not normal. This is, again, individuals who are trying to change the fabric of America.” (The victim, Alex Pretti, was legally licensed to carry a firearm, according to the city’s police chief.)
