WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY), Chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (HSGAC), today led Committee Republicans in advancing reconciliation legislation to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) as Democrats continue to obstruct funding for these agencies through the regular appropriations process. The Committee advanced the measure by a vote of 8-5.
Chairman Rand Paul’s Remarks as Delivered:
As I recall, the ranking member, when he was chairman, the ranking member and I did no markup or authorization of DHS. Today we did process 57 amendments, though, and the minority was able to, you know, vent their frustration. I joined many on the minority of saying we should have reform.
Some reforms have happened. Tom Homan went to Minneapolis, and I haven’t seen any news breaks out there. I haven’t seen people in the street rioting. I think reforms have happened.
I wish we could have come together and announced that these reforms had occurred and that DHS is doing better in this, but instead, the Democrats decided they weren’t going to fund ICE, no matter what.
There were discussions. There were discussions of reforms, but they would never come to the table.
I don’t like doing appropriations this way. I think it’s not a good precedent. But the Democrats left us no choice because they said, ‘We will not fund ICE, no matter what you say, because our base is so rabid.’
But the thing is, 8 million people came across the border.
This is a real problem. It’s overwhelming our welfare system, overwhelming our hospitals.
We can’t have an open border. I haven’t agreed with everything President Trump has done, but he did control the borders. It’s the best thing that has happened; it’s the best change we have had happen since Biden’s administration.
The border is being controlled, but you have to pay ICE. You have to pay the Border Patrol. So, I’m glad we got this done today.
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