Homeland Security

"Turning to Fiscal Year 2021, the budget yet again calls for the unnecessary hiring of an additional 2,844 ICE law enforcement officers and proposes an outrageous increase to 60,000 detention beds. The Administration appears to have learned nothing, as Democrats will not fund unnecessary whims of the President or his campaign promises, particularly for an agency that lacks transparency and whose enforcement tactics are out of control. The request again misses the point, by focusing on a political agenda instead of securing our homeland."

"There are some things in the proposed budget that I believe will find strong bipartisan support, such as funding for the Coast Guard’s second Polar Security Cutter. However, there are also proposals you should not expect to see funded in the House bill. Among those are more funding for border barriers and the expansion of detention bed capacity, which I believe are unnecessary, particularly in light of high priority needs such as continuing to hire customs officers to speed the flow of trade and travel at the ports of entry."

"Our own constitution, federal law, and several international agreements serve as the foundation for the rights and protections I believe need to be embodied in our efforts to address the humanitarian crisis we are currently experiencing. Unfortunately, the rhetoric and the policies of this administration have made achieving that balance more difficult, and by all indications have exacerbated our challenges at the border."