LEADER JEFFRIES ON CNN: "WE WANT REPUBLICANS TO STOP HOLDING TSA AGENTS AND AIR TRAVELERS HOSTAGE TO THEIR EXTREME IMMIGRATION AGENDA"
Today, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries appeared on CNN's The Lead, where he emphasized that House Republicans are prolonging the painful government shutdown by blocking bipartisan legislation to end the shutdown.
PHIL MATTINGLY: Leader Jeffries, really appreciate your time. Just to start with—the administration moving forward on this executive action to pay TSA agents. Given the pain that they've faced, is that something you support, given the fact there doesn't seem to be any legislative outcome coming soon based on House Republicans?
LEADER JEFFRIES: We called for Donald Trump to do this weeks ago. Donald Trump and Republicans have now shut down the Department of Homeland Security for 42 days. They forced TSA agents to work without pay. They're inconveniencing millions of Americans and they're creating chaos at airports all across the land. Donald Trump for weeks claimed he did not have this authority. Of course he did. But what we need to happen right now is for House Republicans to bring bipartisan legislation that was unanimously passed by the Senate to the Floor so we can end this Trump-Republican shutdown today.
PHIL MATTINGLY: Leader Jeffries, one of the questions that I've gotten often that I have a difficult time explaining the rationale is, look, ICE is paid right now on the mandatory side. They are funded right now based on the President's policy proposal that Congress signed into law on Republican-only votes last year. What is the fight? Is this about ICE, or is this purely a negotiating mechanism, a vehicle to get the negotiation that you want on ICE restrictions?
LEADER JEFFRIES: You are correct that ICE has a $75 billion slush fund that was part of the Republican One Big Ugly Bill that was enacted by Republican-only votes last year, where at the same time, they ripped Medicaid away from the American people and stole food from the mouths of hungry children, seniors and veterans with a $186 billion cut to nutritional assistance. So there's a continuing fight about policy priorities. House Democrats believe that taxpayer dollars should be spent to make life more affordable for the American people, not to brutalize and kill American citizens or violently target law-abiding immigrant families. At the same period of time, we want Republicans to stop holding TSA agents and air travelers hostage to their extreme immigration agenda.
PHIL MATTINGLY: Do you believe there is any pathway at this point to actually secure the enforcement-related changes Democrats were pushing for that led to this in the start?
LEADER JEFFRIES: Yes, because the American people are demanding that immigration enforcement in this country be fair, just and humane. We want to compel ICE to conduct itself like every other cop, police officer and law enforcement agency in the country by enacting changes that are bold, meaningful, dramatic and common-sense at the same period of time. That's what the American people have demanded Congress do because the American people are rejecting the notion that billions of dollars are being spent to brutalize, target and kill them. That's not acceptable in this country. It's one of the reasons why Donald Trump's policies, his mass deportation, violent, extreme agenda, is so deeply unpopular.
PHIL MATTINGLY: I want to play some sound from Republican Congressman Chip Roy from earlier today. Take a listen.
RECORDING OF REP. CHIP ROY: It is absolutely offensive to the people that we represent that the Senate would send over a bill that doesn't fund Border Patrol and the core components of ICE. And the fact that they would expect us to take that up and pass it today as they leave town? I mean, could the Senate be any more lazy than to send to us a bill that doesn't do the job and then leave town?
PHIL MATTINGLY: I do want to preface this with it is a universal view in the House, bipartisan, that they don't like the Senate all that much, and oftentimes would characterize it, maybe not publicly, as lazy, as you just heard from the Congressman there. My better question is, as a Leader, watching the Speaker and Senate Majority Leader John Thune end up in this position, how does that happen?
LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, House Republicans continue to fight with Senate Republicans while Democrats are fighting to make life better for the American people. Chip Roy should know that in the One Big Ugly Bill that he supported, $65 billion in a slush fund was given to Customs and Border Patrol. They have more than enough money to continue to do the types of things that they have been charged to do under law. But what shouldn't be happening is that CBP agents shouldn't be commandeered by ICE to actually target, violently brutalize or, in some cases, kill the American people. ICE is well-funded, CBP is well-funded, but Republicans have decided that they don't want to get ICE under control, which is why they have shut down DHS, shut down TSA effectively, shut down FEMA and shut down the Coast Guard so that they can continue to jam their extreme ideology down the throats of the American people.
Full interview can be watched here.