Washington — The U.S. House cleared a government funding package Tuesday, sending the legislation to President Donald Trump, who is expected to quickly sign it and end the partial shutdown that began this past weekend.
The 217-214 vote followed a tumultuous couple of weeks on Capitol Hill after the package stalled in the Senate. Democrats demanded additional restraints on immigration enforcement in reaction to the shooting death of a second U.S. citizen in Minneapolis.
Trump and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., ultimately agreed to pull the full-year appropriations bill for the Department of Homeland Security and replace it with a two-week stopgap measure.
That is supposed to give leaders in Congress and the administration a bit of time to find consensus on changes to how immigration officers operate.
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said during a morning press conference he wants negotiations to address local and state governments that don’t cooperate with federal immigration enforcement activities, often called sanctuary cities.
“What must be a part of that discussion is the participation of blue cities in federal immigration enforcement,” he said. “You can’t go to a sanctuary city and pretend like the law doesn’t apply there. It does and so we are going to be working through all that.”
Administrative Warrants Debate
Johnson said GOP lawmakers would not agree to require federal immigration agents to secure judicial warrants in order to detain people, one of several proposals Democrats have put forward.
“We are never going to go along with adding an entirely new layer of judicial warrants because it is unimplementable,” he said. “It cannot be done and it should not be done and it’s not necessary.”
Johnson, a constitutional lawyer, said those administrative warrants are “sufficient legal authority to go and apprehend someone.”
When pressed if that type of warrant is enough to enter someone’s home without violating the Fourth Amendment, Johnson said that a “controversy has erupted” over what immigration agents should do when someone they’re trying to detain enters a private residence.
“What is Immigration and Customs Enforcement supposed to do at that point? ‘Oh gee whiz, they locked the door. I guess we’ll just go on.’ So there is some logic and reason that is to be applied here,” Johnson said. “Some have complained that the force has been excessive or what have you. I don’t know. We’re going to figure that out. It’s part of the discussion over the next couple weeks.”
Johnson said GOP negotiators will also make sure Congress maintains “important parameters” on immigration law and enforcement.
“We can’t go down the road of amnesty, you can’t in any way lighten the enforcement requirement of federal immigration law,” he said. “That’s what the American people demand and deserve.”
“Most Basic Duty” of Congress
Connecticut Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, said during floor debate on the government spending package that clearing the legislation was the best way to move into negotiations about immigration enforcement.
“We will be in the strongest possible position to fight for and win the drastic changes we all know are needed to protect our communities — judicial warrant requirements, no more detentions or deportations of United States citizens, an enforceable code of conduct, taking off the masks, putting the badges on, requiring the body cameras, real accountability for the egregious abuses we have seen,” she said.
House Appropriations Committee Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla., said funding the government “is not an optional exercise, it’s the most basic duty we have in Congress.”
“Shutdowns are never the answer, they don’t work,” he said. “They only hurt the American people. So today lawmakers in this chamber have an opportunity to avoid repeating past mistakes.”
In addition to providing two more weeks of funding for the Department of Homeland Security, the spending package holds full-year appropriations bills for the departments of Defense, Education, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Labor, State, Transportation and Treasury. The Senate voted 71-29 on Friday evening to send the package to the House.
Congress had already approved half of the dozen annual appropriations bills for the fiscal year that began back on Oct. 1.
Ariana Figueroa and Ashley Murray contributed to this report.
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