On Capitol Hill, Democrats have renewed their government shutdown threat, and it seems like the same old story. Perhaps the famous quote attributed to baseball great Yogi Berra is appropriate: It’s déjà vu all over again. Democrats make demands as a condition of cooperating on spending bills or other legislation; Republicans hold out for a while, but in the end, give them most or all of what they wanted – and then the Democrats come up with additional asks. This time, the sticking point is the appropriations bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the last piece of the federal budget jigsaw puzzle.
Just about a week ago, everything looked set. Though a few Democrats balked at the idea of appropriating more money for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), most agreed that they weren’t going to trigger another shutdown over that one issue, providing the GOP agreed to a few stipulations.
Republicans did agree. It is tiresome for voters to see the party they support continually cave, but, on the Hill, they call it compromise. It is, after all, how Congress has been doing things since its founding in 1789. And both parties, over the decades, have compromised to get at least most or some of what they wanted.
Increasingly, though, it seemed that Democrats were never satisfied – and they won out, more often than not. This time around, the Jan. 24 fatal shooting of Alex Pretti by a federal agent in Minneapolis, MN, spurred Democrats to say not so fast.
On Jan. 28, they presented their new demands before the DHS bill could be packaged up and sent on its way. The requested measures – among other things – curtail ICE patrols, require ICE agents to wear bodycams, and forbid them from wearing masks.
If a deal is not reached, the federal government will enter a partial shutdown on Jan. 31.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters that ICE agents “violate constitutional rights all the time.” He also accused the agency of “refusing to coordinate with state and local law enforcement.” Yet, in several Democrat-controlled jurisdictions around the country, law enforcement agencies have been expressly forbidden from cooperating with ICE.
“This is not law and order,” Schumer said on Jan. 28. “This is chaos, created at the top and felt in so many of our neighborhoods.”
Not mentioned by Democrats is that ICE has for months been actively carrying out its mission in multiple states with little resistance and very few violent confrontations. Minnesota, the state in which multiple major fraud schemes have recently become public knowledge, quickly became ground zero for often-violent anti-ICE protests. Some might suggest that this is no coincidence.
Hill Republicans, some of whom have wilted in the aftermath of the Pretti shooting, seem ready to compromise further, though time is running out. Still, a shutdown may serve only to satisfy the radical progressive faction of the Democratic Party’s base, while the rest of the country looks upon it as just another sign that the party’s only agenda – still – is resisting Trump. It’s déjà vu all over again.
