Democratic Nevada Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto called out her party on Thursday for traditionally being “weak on immigration,” but also pushed to defund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Cortez Masto, a moderate Democrat who has broken from her party in the past, said the Biden administration was “too afraid” to talk about securing the border — only then to propose lowering the funding allocated to protect it during an interview with The New York Times’ “The Daily” podcast (NYT) published Thursday. Her comments come as the Democratic-led shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) heads into its second week, leaving vital agencies such as the Coast Guard and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) without funding.
“I think traditionally I have seen that the Democrats are weak on immigration,” the senator told the NYT’s Michael Barbaro during the podcast interview.
Barbaro asked Cortez Masto if she was “conceding” this point, to which she replied, “Yeah, absolutely.”
“[W]e can do both: We can secure our borders. We can address the human trafficking, the drug trafficking and weapons trafficking that’s happening there,” Cortez Masto added. “We can work to secure it, fund it, and at the same time have an immigration process that treats people with respect — people who want to come to this country.”
“But I have seen Democrats shy away from that. They don’t talk about the balance between the two. I watched as the last administration was too afraid to talk about securing the border,” added, referring to the Biden administration.
“We are not saying completely defund ICE,” the lawmaker continued. “What we are saying is fund them to the level they traditionally were so that we’re securing our borders. And we are also working in our communities with local law enforcement to go after the violent criminals under the immigration jurisdiction that they have.”
The DHS appropriations bill — which almost all Senate Democrats including Cortez Masto voted against Feb. 12, triggering the partial government shutdown — would give DHS an additional $64.4 billion including $10 billion for ICE.
However, Cortez Masto told Barbaro she would be satisfied if the partial government shutdown, which currently has some Americans working without a guaranteed paycheck, ended without any real policy changes. Negotiations over DHS reforms are still deadlocked, but the Trump administration so far has released funds specifically for body cameras, which was one of the Democratic Party’s demands.
Cortez Masto’s office did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
Democrats have largely compared ICE agents to local police officers, claiming ICE and CBP agents should conduct themselves the same as every local law enforcement officer does. Some of the reforms Democrats are demanding in order to fund DHS include mandating that federal immigration agents remove their masks and present identification, much like how local law enforcement officers are labeled with their name and badge number.
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