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Floor Speech

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Mr. THUNE. Mr. President, we are more than 3 weeks into the Democrat's DHS shutdown, and Democrats keep telling us that they are serious about funding this Agency, but their actions speak louder than their words. Negotiations have been going now for well over a month, and Democrats have sent two offers to the White House--two offers that were basically the same. No compromise. No give-and-take. Just take it or leave it.

Then, on Thursday, perhaps realizing that forcing tens of thousands of DHS employees to go without pay isn't great for their brand, Democrats made a new yet equally unserious proposal, and that is selectively funding certain DHS Agencies. That is right. Democrats want to fund the parts of the Department of Homeland Security that they like and keep the rest shut down indefinitely.

Now, this might come as news to Democrats, but the fact is that every part of the Department of Homeland Security is essential. As our colleague Senator Britt pointed out on Thursday, Democrats' plan would leave Homeland Security investigations in limbo. A lot of Americans might not know it, but Homeland Security Investigations is responsible for some pretty serious law enforcement activities in this country. They look up child predators, drug dealers, terrorists.

And then there is Customs and Border Protection, another Agency that Democrats' plan would leave in limbo. Now, most Americans interact with CBP officers when they come back to the United States from abroad. They are the people who check your passport. They are also the people who prevent illegal immigrants and contraband like drugs and weapons from crossing our borders and getting into the country.

Under President Trump and thanks to the hard work of these men and women, our border is secure, and illegal crossings have shrunk to a tiny fraction of the record-setting numbers of the Biden administration.

The police chief in Sioux Falls recently said this of the drop in fentanyl seizures in South Dakota's largest city:

I think it's safe to say that some of the measures taken within the southern border are paying dividends within our community.

Are Democrats looking to undo these gains and return to chaos at the border?

Well, on top of all this, Democrats' proposal would also leave enforcement and removal operations unfunded--the people responsible for removing gang members, convicted criminals, and other dangerous illegal immigrants from our country.

On Thursday, the ranking member of the Appropriations Committee Senator Murray said that Democrats ``cannot, we will not, cut a blank check--funding without reforms--for ICE and Border Patrol.''

Well, no one is asking her to. In fact, the DHS funding agreement the Democrats reneged on would have funded deescalation training for ICE officers, added $20 million for body cameras, and increased oversight of ICE funding.

The Trump administration has already taken a number of actions to rein in immigration enforcement on its own, and the administration has made two substantial offers to Democrats to legislate reform measures, over and above the measures that Republicans had already agreed to.

Republicans and the White House are at the table--at the table. It is Democrats who are standing in the way.

Democrats can talk all they want about getting reforms, but the only thing they are accomplishing by dragging this out is protecting the status quo. There is only one way to get reforms signed into law, and that is by passing a DHS funding bill. And if Democrats were really serious about taking action on this issue, they would be working overtime to arrive at a compromise.

But they are not. They don't even want to sit down. Members on our side have reached out to the leaders on the Appropriations Committee on the Democrat's side and been told: We are not interested in having a conversation about this--not even interested in sitting down, which strongly suggests that what they are really interested in is not a solution but a political issue. They don't really want reforms. They want a political issue that they can use in November.

It is 3 weeks and counting on Democrats' second shutdown this fiscal year alone. Tens of thousands of DHS employees are going without pay and critical DHS priorities are going unfunded.

Will this be the week that Democrats actually get serious? I hope the answer is yes. But as of right now, this is what we are getting from the leadership on the Democrat side, the leadership on the Democrat Appropriations Committee--by the way, all of whom negotiated this deal in the first place before they walked away from it. But despite repeated overtures on our side and by the White House to engage with Democrats, they said: We are not even going to talk about it--not even going to talk about it.

So are they going to continue to keep Homeland Security and hard- working Americans in jeopardy?

I guess we will find out soon enough, but I hope that posture changes and they reengage in keeping important Agencies of our government that fulfill important safety and security responsibilities funded and those employees at work.

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