Latino

Hispanic Caucus sets red lines on DHS spending bill

by Rafael Bernal - 11/28/18 2:03 PM ET

The Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC) is calling on Republican leaders to slash funding for immigration enforcement measures in an upcoming Homeland Security appropriations bill.

Rep. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-N.M.), head of the CHC, and fellow CHC member Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) want cuts to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention capacity and enforcement operations, as well as “zero funding” for President Trump’s proposed border wall.

{mosads}”We urge you to oppose a costly mass deportation agenda that undermines our public safety, economic well-being and values,” Lujan Grisham and Castro wrote in a letter Tuesday to House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) and House Appropriations Committee Chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-N.J.).

Lujan Grisham is retiring from Congress in early January to become governor of New Mexico, and Castro is expected to succeed her as chairman of the CHC.

The CHC request is being seen as a shot across the bow as Republicans seek to avoid a partial government shutdown over border funding during the lame-duck session.

Homeland Security is one of seven appropriations bills that need to be passed by Dec. 7 to avert a shutdown, and Trump has threatened to veto any bill that does not include his preferred funding amount for a border wall.

The House previously passed a spending bill with $5 billion for the wall, and a Senate measure includes less than $2 billion.

“Five billion dollars is a waste of taxpayer funding to build an unnecessary and operationally ineffective wall on our southern border,” wrote Lujan Grisham and Castro in the letter to GOP leaders.

Republican senators this week called on McConnell to temper Trump’s border security funding expectations, in the belief that a partial shutdown would hurt the GOP more than Democrats.

“I think we’re going to avoid that at all costs,” said Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), referring to a potential shutdown.

The CHC letter comes as the caucus’s size and influence is growing; the group could have as many as 34 voting House members in the next Congress, up from the current level of 28.

The CHC’s incoming members will include two border district representatives, Reps.-elect Veronica Escobar (D-Texas) and Xochitl Torres-Small (D-N.M.). As of January, CHC members will control eight of nine border districts; Rep.-elect Ann Kirkpatrick, the Democrat who won Arizona’s 2nd Congressional District, is not eligible to join the CHC.

The lone Republican border representative, Rep. Will Hurd (Texas), has consistently spoken out against Trump’s wall proposal and has worked closely with Democrats on pairing border security funding to immigration reform.

With Republicans wary of a potential shutdown over the border wall, Democrats are digging in their heels to either reduce immigration enforcement funding or extract immigration concessions.

“We cannot allow for additional funding that would enable the Administration to further increase its indiscriminate enforcement of immigration law,” the CHC leaders wrote.