It’s astonishing that we’re even talking about this.
It’s a scandal that every member of Congress isn’t jumping at the chance to effectively shut down an armed paramilitary that either party can weaponize at will against cities, states, and individuals for political ends.
It’s astonishing that Democrats, at least, aren’t rejoicing that last year’s government shutdown put them in position, now, to shut down discrete parts of the government instead of the whole thing.
They could shut off funds to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and even — because not only Dreamers can dream — the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The Justice Department, which doesn’t do justice to its name. The Defense Department which literally the federal government calls the War Department, in case any Democrats were unsure what they’re funding.
Or at lease use funding threats to extract some serious enforceable reform.
Funding for most government agencies will run out at the end of the month. Some can run on steam for a time, and the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBuBBA) had enough hot air for ICE to last a while. But Democrats have the chance right now to take a stand that would eventually leave ICE out of steam.
It’s not just that ICE murdered a woman whose car we know wasn’t going to hit her killer because it didn’t. It’s not just that Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and, more tepidly, Pres. Donald Trump, have made clear that, yes, in their view, this is what ICE is for.
It’s also that Trump has already said he will shut down parts of the government. Mostly blue parts.
On Tuesday, after literally flipping the bird to a union autoworker, Trump announced that as of Feb. 1 the government won’t make “any payments” to sanctuary cities or states, where local governments exercise their right not to work with ICE.
The Justice Department lists 11 sanctuary states:
California
Colorado
Connecticut
Delaware
Illinois
Minnesota
New York
Oregon
Rhode Island
Vermont
Washington
But remember, Trump also said he’s shutting off payments — whatever that means — to “states having sanctuary cities.” According to Justice, sanctuary cities can be found in these six states, in addition to those already listed and the District of Columbia:
Louisiana
Massachusetts
Michigan
New Jersey
New Mexico
Pennsylvania
If Trump can cut off all federal funding to 18 states, justified by supporting ICE, then obviously Democrats can cut off just ICE funding to oppose ICE. Among others.
Let’s take a quick detour to the Justice Department. Prosecutors are already shutting down their own jobs there in protest. The least Democrats can do is support them.
The department is barely doing any more of the work that Democrats insist needs to be funded anyway.
You think they’re going after white-collar crime? You’re adorable.
Story after story has revealed investigators and prosecutors getting pulled from real crime for immigrant-hunting and Jeffrey Epstein redacting. The work that some Democrats still insist must be funded is now focused on:
Prosecuting Sen. Adam Schiff (D-CA)
Prosecuting New York State Attorney General Letitia James
Prosecuting former FBI Director James Comey
Not prosecuting the guy who shot Renee Good in the face
Investigating Good instead of the guy who shot her in the face
Investigating Good’s widow instead of the guy who shot Good in the face
Defending the right of unlawful prosecutors to keep prosecuting
Writing memos justifying extraordinary deportation powers
Writing memos justifying The Boat-iac Killer™ maritime murders of alleged drug dealers
Writing memos justifying attacking another country in order to take its president and his wife
Illegally redacting The Epstein Files™
Illegally not releasing the rest of The Epstein Files™.
Democratic proponents of funding Justice and DHS, including ICE, position themselves as the grownups. What’re we gonna do, NOT fund violent armed gangs led by a criminal and his avowed loyalists?
These politicians always claim the savvy high ground. This is just the way the world is. Of course the most powerful democracy in history needs thousands of paramilitary troops roaming the streets to enforce political whim.
Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) never fails to defend this position by touting her credentials. In the CIA. In Iraq. Apparently still deaf to the banshee wail of failure associated with both.
It’s also worth looking at the voting history of these savvy, real-world pragmatists. Because on vote after vote, they get it wrong, screw people over in the process, lather, rinse, repeat.
And if you do a little digging, you’ll see that every time, some of them end up saying they regret it. Which never seems to happen on the other side! Any Iraq War opponents out there copping to getting it wrong?
Last year, Michelle Goldberg wrote a great piece for the New York Times on this history: How some Democrats always seem to get dragged to the right by fear-mongering realism about whatever.
The homophobic Defense of Marriage Act, which they ended up undoing.
Authorizations for use of military force, which they voted to end.
The USA PATRIOT Act, which injected the noxious, fashy word “homeland” into the American lexicon and gave us DHS, ICE, and expanded government power to surveil and screw us.
Trump nominee confirmations.
The Laken Riley Act that unleashed ICE and xenophobia.
Every time, the same old crowd of progressives warns against it. Every time, the media ignore them. Every time, the so-called moderates cluck-cluck about the real-world necessity of passing it. And every time, it goes sidewise and some of them end up admitting they were wrong.
And this is not a partisan thing.
When Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) claimed that Pres. Joe Biden surveilled them, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) responded “It’s called the Patriot Act, FISA1, and CISA2.” He then told Blackburn, “Please vote no next time.”
Two out of the seven Democrats who voted to confirm Noem have already said oops. The Democrats who voted against her appear to be sleeping just fine at night.
At least two House Democrats already regret voting for the Laken Riley Act, not even a year old. And one of those regrets came before the ICE machine started crushing entire cities.
Sen. Mark Warner (R-VA) — one of the Democrats currently open to funding some more ICE, regardless of the danger to American citizens — said last summer that he, too, regretted voting for the Laken Riley Act. And yet, here he is, prepared to give ICE more of our money to exercise the wildly expanded Laken Riley powers Warner regrets giving ICE to use against us.
And we know who’ll be getting that money. ICE is currently recruiting to deploy thousands of people less experienced and less well trained than veteran ICE agent Jonathan Ross, who shot and killed Renee Good and instead of rushing to administer medical assistance walked away calling her a “fucking bitch.”
He’ll be getting a raise next year with Democrat-approved funds. And he’ll be joined by new agents ICE is currently seeking — with lower standards for entry — among gun enthusiasts and military fetishists.
Democrats will fund a division of government that as a matter of policy spreads division and social poison online. An agency that engages in performative cruelty with its apparently limitless free time.
Warner and other Democrats who insist that ICE funding is the grownup thing to do will be responsible for paying the people ICE puts on the streets and aims at us.
It’s an enraging dynamic that we see play out over and over, most notably on Obamacare. It starts out unpopular because Republicans demonize it and the media don’t cover it well.
Over time, people come to like Demonized Policy X because over time they learn. That’s what’s happening right now with the movement to abolish ICE.
If reticent Democrats like Warner would just recognize how often they turn out to be wrong, maybe they’d listen more often to the progressive Cassandras who get it right time after time. If Democrats are afraid of public blowback, well, imagine how much faster that blowback would dry up without their hemming and hawing.
Better yet, start leading instead of waiting to catch up to public opinion. Teach people. Defend core principles. Fight, for fuck’s sake.
As Goldberg warned a year ago yesterday, prior to final passage of the Laken Riley Act:
“Someday, when public opinion on immigration shifts again, Democrats who voted for this cruel and misguided bill will have a hard time justifying it. If only they could save themselves and us the trouble.”
It’s hard to imagine, but months later, with more ICE fatalities, a shrinking handful of Democrats are still compounding last year’s error by insisting that funding ICE is the responsible, grownup position.
TFN creator and writer Jonathan Larsen co-created Up w/ Chris Hayes and wrote for Countdown with Keith Olbermann at MSNBC, helped launch CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360° and Air America Radio, and has also worked at The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Young Turks.
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, part of the DHS.
Right, here’s a question for you: why don’t those sanctuary states and cities flip the finger to federal tax collectors, and use collected taxes for their own needs? With that orange pissball cutting off funds?
I can't even finish reading this. We seem to go one step forward with some folks pushing back, then two steps backward toward totalitarianism. I don't know what else there is to say about this. We have called the monster and his minions every name we can think of, we have protested, we have called and written our Senators and Representatives but not one goddamned, fucking thing has changed!! It is so shocking to me that so few people seem to care, but then I understand the urge to avoid this shitshow and focus on things one can control.
If anyone has a different take, I'd love to hear it because right now I am nothing but a ball of despair.