LEADER JEFFRIES ON PBS: "ICE HAS BEEN TARGETING LAW-ABIDING IMMIGRANT FAMILIES AND BRUTALIZING AMERICAN COMMUNITIES. THAT'S UNACCEPTABLE."
Today, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries appeared on PBS NewsHour, where he reiterated that Democrats will not provide any additional funding for the Department of Homeland Security without bold, transformational and meaningful changes in the law that protect the American people from their out-of-control behavior.
AMNA NAWAZ: Leader Jeffries, welcome back to the NewsHour. Thanks for joining us.
LEADER JEFFRIES: Great to be with you.
AMNA NAWAZ: So without a funding deal now, we're in day three of another partial government shutdown. We know Congress is out all week. So does that mean that a shutdown is going to last at least that long?
LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, as Democrats, we continue to be ready, willing, and able to sit down with our Republican colleagues any time, any place, in order to make sure that we can get ICE under control. The American people deserve to have their taxpayer dollars used to make their life more affordable and not to brutalize or kill them, as was tragically the case with Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti. And we simply believe, as a value proposition, that immigration enforcement in this country, it should be fair, it should be just and it should be humane. Donald Trump promised to target violent felons who are here illegally. Instead, ICE has been targeting law-abiding immigrant families and brutalizing American communities. That's unacceptable, and that needs to change.
AMNA NAWAZ: In terms of where talks are to get to some kind of deal, though, we know Democrats put forward a list of demands last week. We saw a senior White House official on Thursday say that Democrats have rejected what they call their latest counter proposal. So for folks who are already out there working without pay right now, what can you tell them about how much closer you are to a deal today compared to last week?
LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, it's very unfortunate that Republicans have decided that they would prefer to shut down FEMA, shut down the Coast Guard, and shut down TSA as opposed to actually getting ICE under control, reining them in because the American people know they have gone too far and ensure that ICE and CBP behave like every other law enforcement agency in the country. That's the objective that we are trying to achieve. Now, there are several things, common sense, strong proposals that we've put on the table that, to date, Republicans have rejected, including a requirement that judicial warrants be obtained before ICE agents can storm the homes of the American people or private property. We also believe that ICE agents, of course, should be trained, should have an excessive use of force policy that they adhere to, and that they shouldn't be able to target sensitive locations like schools and hospitals, houses of worship and polling sites. And we finally believe, of course, in terms of some of the topline demands that we've made, is that there should be independent investigations whenever it is the case that ICE agents or CBP agents break state and local law.
AMNA NAWAZ: We've reported extensively on—I know that the Democrats demands in this case, but are you any closer to a deal? Have you talked to the White House in the last three days?
LEADER JEFFRIES: I haven't had direct conversation with the White House. My understanding, Donald Trump was down in Florida on the golf course yesterday, which is exactly what we saw from the President during the 43-day Trump Republican shutdown, a lack of seriousness as it relates to direct engagement between House Democrats and Senate Democrats. And as I've indicated, though there are staff-to-staff conversations, there have not been any principal-level discussions to date, either with the White House or with House and Senate Republican leaders.
AMNA NAWAZ: I'm going to put to you what your fellow Democrat, Senator John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, has said about where things are. He pointed out the shutdown really is not going to have an impact on ICE. We saw a huge influx of funding from that so-called Big Beautiful Bill. He said what it's really doing, as you pointed out, too, is forcing TSA workers to work without pay. FEMA could also be affected. So if ICE reforms are what you want to see here, how does a shutdown that doesn't really affect the agency get you there?
LEADER JEFFRIES: Well, first of all, we have until the end of the month to make sure that TSA agents don't miss a single paycheck and that is our commitment as Democrats and we need, of course, Republicans to join us, with respect to TSA, along with the Coast Guard and FEMA, the other agencies that are part of the Department of Homeland Security. John Fetterman, of course, he knows that the One Big Ugly Bill, which every single Democrat in the House and the Senate voted against, was an egregious piece of legislation that both ripped away Medicaid from about 14 million Americans, a trillion dollar cut to Medicaid, the largest in American history, it stole food from the mouths of hungry children, seniors and veterans with a $186 billion dollar cut to SNAP, which also happens to be the largest in American history and then used that money to provide massive tax breaks to the GOP's billionaire donors and to create this $75 billion slush fund for untrained and masked ICE agents to be violently unleashed in American communities. So yes, we do have to address the dynamics related to the One Big Ugly Bill. But at this moment, in the context of the appropriations battle that is in front of us, we have an opportunity to make bold, transformational and meaningful changes in the law that will actually immediately impact how ICE agents are permitted to conduct themselves.
AMNA NAWAZ: That's House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries joining us today. Leader Jeffries, thank you. Good to speak with you.
LEADER JEFFRIES: Thank you.
Full interview can be watched here.