Last week, Congress passed, and the President signed, a reconciliation bill that appropriates nearly $70 billion to fund U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) for the next three years. The legislation marks the culmination of a battle that started in February during the traditional appropriations process and ultimately caused a partial government shutdown.
The debate began when Senate Minority Leader Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, in response to the deaths of two U.S. citizens during encounters with ICE agents, sent a letter to House Speaker Johnson and Senate Majority Leader Thune proposing a set of 10 guardrails for immigration enforcement. Their proposal included requirements for a judicial warrant to enter private property and for the use of body cameras by ICE officers, as well as a prohibition on enforcement activities near sensitive locations including medical facilities, schools, child care programs, churches, and polling places. The proposed guardrails were not radical, and many had been in place in previous administrations or are being utilized by other law enforcement organizations. Policy Equity Group closely followed the legislation in the hope that Congress would include these checks on ICE authority, particularly those designed to keep children safe in our country’s early care and education settings.
Unfortunately, the funding bill passed without guardrails. ICE now has another massive infusion of funding, on top of a historically large increase last year, to hire, train, and deploy ICE agents across the country. With so much funding and no new accountability measures in place, we are left to wonder: Did we learn nothing about the importance of safeguards on immigration enforcement from the deaths of two U.S. citizens?
It is important to understand how the funding bill was ultimately enacted. Supporters of the spending package did not have the votes to pass the bill through the traditional appropriations process that generally requires a filibuster-proof 60-vote majority in the Senate. The Senate is the chamber where deliberation and compromise is supposed to happen. Yet, unwilling to compromise on the guardrails, congressional leaders turned to the budget reconciliation process, as they did the year before, to achieve the policy goal. Children are now less safe.
As we enter election season, the lesson from the past two years is clear: families, providers, and communities suffer when major policy decisions affecting their lives are made without bipartisan engagement or compromise. This latest round of funding to ICE is yet another example of how unilateral policymaking is jeopardizing the well-being of children, families, and communities.