Democratic senators call on appropriators to rein in Trump administration immigration enforcement

Citing “indiscriminate enforcement” of immigration laws, a Democratic coalition of senators called on U.S. Senate appropriators on Friday to reject the Trump administration’s request for border wall funding, additional border patrol agents and additional Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention beds in fiscal year 2019.

U.S. Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Kamala Harris (D-CA), Bob Menendez (D-NN), Dick Durbin (D-IL), and Mazie Hirono (D-HI) led 14 additional senators in making the request in a letter sent to the leader of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee.

“Under current funding levels, the administration has expanded immigration enforcement within American communities in an indiscriminate manner, failing to distinguish Dreamers and other hardworking individuals with deep community ties from actual threats to our public safety,” the letter stated. “ICE Acting Director Thomas Homan has made repeated statements confirming that ICE is no longer adhering to enforcement priorities that focus resources on individuals who pose the greatest public safety threats. Homan has repeatedly declared, for example, that, ‘No population is off the table.’”

The letter urged Senate appropriators to deny increased funding requests for the administration’s “reckless immigration enforcement operations that are tearing families apart and harming our economy.” The senators also voiced concern about the impact of the administration’s “unilateral and callous decision” to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

“During fiscal year 2017, ICE enforcement and removal operations (ERO) arrests of individuals without criminal convictions doubled compared to the prior year,” the letter continued. “During the last three months of 2017, ICE arrests of individuals who had no criminal background tripled compared to the same period the year prior. Further, over the past year, ICE ERO has dramatically ramped up immigration raids targeting American workplaces and neighborhoods. DHS has articulated no strategy for how it will ensure that Dreamers are not caught up in the expanding enforcement net.”

The letter also called for “rigorous study” of border security needs and the effectiveness of technology and infrastructure investments at the border before appropriating any funds for President Donald Trump’s border wall, which would cost an estimated $70 billion.

“Investment in port-of-entry security and technologies to monitor border crossings would be a much more effective border security investment than a physical wall,” the letter stated. “A wall, in fact, would do little to aid federal drug interdiction efforts as the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency has found — and DHS officials have publicly admitted — that drugs entering the U.S. from Mexico by land are mostly concealed in passenger vehicles and tractor trailers entering through ports of entry, while drugs from other sources mostly enter the country via plane and boat.”

The senators added that that the Trump administration has fueled “great anxiety and undermined the public safety of communities nationwide” by its “indiscriminate immigration enforcement.”

“We cannot support the appropriation of funds that may be used by federal officials to support efforts to arrest, detain and deport Dreamers who have needlessly been placed in a circumstance of immense fear and insecurity by this administration,” the letter concluded.