WASHINGTON — Congress is on a path to shutting down the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) at the end of the month, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) said Tuesday.
He torched Republicans, again, for insisting on provisions in the DHS funding measure to strip protections for young undocumented immigrants — often called DREAMers — and block President Barack Obama’s more recent executive actions to allow temporary deportation protections for more than 4 million adults.
“We can say that for each DREAMer — there’s about 600,000 of them — the Republicans want to deport every one of these DREAMers. Deport them,” Reid said on the Senate floor. “So, shutting down the Department of Homeland Security is where we’re headed. Such a shame.”
He also floated the possibility of a “continuing resolution” — a stopgap measure to keep DHS operational on autopilot, which virtually all lawmakers and experts agree is an ineffective way to govern. It would also prolong, rather than resolve, the underlying immigration fight that’s holding up the appropriations measure.
“Each of these would be a disaster for our economy,” Reid said.
In his opening remarks Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) didn’t discuss the House-passed DHS funding bill, which Senate Democrats filibustered three times in three consecutive days last week. Republicans haven’t proposed a viable fallback plan as Democrats insist on a “clean” DHS funding bill that doesn’t harm Obama’s immigration actions.
If DHS funding expires, thousands of workers would be furloughed, and tens of thousands of “essential” security personnel would be required to work without being paid for the duration of the shutdown. Notably, the agency tasked with processing Obama’s work permits for undocumented immigrants is fee-funded and would be mostly unaffected by a shutdown.
