White House ‘not willing to make meaningful reforms’ to ICE: Van Hollen

[0:00] Democrats held firm in our opposition that Donald Trump's rogue and deadly militia [0:06] should not get more funding without serious reforms, and we will continue to fight for those reforms. [0:14] Senate Democrats stood united, no wavering, no backing down. We held the line. [0:21] Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer celebrating prematurely the House later blocked the bill [0:29] that was passed unanimously by the Senate. I'm joined now by Senator Chris Van Hollen, Democrat of Maryland. [0:34] Thank you for being here, Senator. [0:36] Good to be with you. [0:36] So, I mean, what's the bottom line here? I mean, you guys are on recess for two weeks. [0:43] Homeland Security is not funded. Where's this going? [0:47] So, the bottom line, as you just discussed with Steve Scalise, is that you had a bipartisan bill, [0:54] Republicans and Democrats, pass the Senate that would immediately fully fund TSA, [1:00] and by the way, FEMA and the Coast Guard, while we continue to negotiate reforms to ICE, [1:08] a lawless ICE operation. And the Republican Speaker of the House refused to even have a vote on that [1:14] in the House and went home, as we have these big lines at airports. [1:18] Now, President Trump has said he has the emergency authority to spend money for TSA. [1:24] And the question I have is, why didn't he use that 45 days ago? [1:29] And is he going to now? [1:30] So, when the Senate passed that bill, and there was that brief moment that looked like, you know, dawn had broken, [1:37] you put out a statement saying that Republicans had, quote, finally relented. [1:43] What did Democrats get out of this, even if that passed? What did you get out of this? [1:47] This DHS shutdown's going on for well over a month. What have you gotten for it? [1:52] Well, the issue here, John, is we let people know, number one, that we want to fully fund TSA. [1:59] We could get rid of these lines at the airport. [2:01] We could get rid of these lines at the airport. [2:02] We could get rid of these lines at the airport. [2:02] We could get rid of these lines at the airport. [2:02] We could get rid of these lines at the airport. [2:03] But we also made clear that we're going to demand reforms of a lawless ICE operation. [2:09] After all, DSA agents killed two American citizens in Minneapolis. [2:15] And the president and his team called the victims domestic terrorists. [2:21] So, for example, we've said you can't expect DHS to conduct a credible, independent investigation. [2:28] They're denying information to the local law enforcement authorities. [2:32] They're denying information to the local law enforcement authorities. [2:32] Minneapolis and Minnesota, they've blocked access. [2:36] Those states have had to sue. [2:38] So, we say you need to be able to hold people accountable for wrongdoing. [2:43] And they say they don't want to do that. [2:44] By the way, I should point out that, obviously, ICE has more than enough money. [2:49] After all, the president is now deploying ICE agents to airports. [2:53] We should have TSA agents at airports. [2:56] Yeah, I mean, I guess what's confusing here is you have fought and blocked the funding for the Department of Health. [3:02] You have blocked the funding for the Department of Homeland Security because you object, as you just outlined, to what ICE has been doing. [3:08] And you wanted to force changes. [3:10] And yet, the only thing that has been assured throughout all of this is that ICE already has the money. [3:17] Because, as you said, $75 billion passed in the budget bill last year. [3:22] So, you're holding up the entirety of the Department of Homeland Security because you object to ICE and you want changes to ICE. [3:29] But through it all, ICE continues to have the money. [3:32] John, we're not holding up all of the money for all the Department of Homeland Security. [3:37] That's just a false statement. [3:39] We have said repeatedly, repeatedly, we should fund TSA, we should fund FEMA, we should fund the Coast Guard. [3:47] We are not prepared to give ICE another $10 billion on top of the monies they already have and are using in many of these lawless operations. [3:57] We're not going to give them another $10 billion unless they make fundamental reforms. [4:02] $10 billion. [4:03] You're holding people accountable for the killing of American citizens. [4:06] And fighting over that additional $10 billion, you are holding up the rest of the Department of Homeland Security. [4:10] We're not holding it up. [4:11] No, John, we're not holding it up. [4:14] We have now voted 10 times. [4:16] Right, but you're holding it up unless it doesn't include money for ICE. [4:20] That's just a fact. [4:21] Unless it doesn't include money for ICE, a very reformed ICE. [4:25] That's right. [4:26] Which already has the money. [4:27] But why not fund TSA now? [4:30] That's what we've said. [4:31] That's what the House blocked. [4:32] Let's be really clear. [4:33] That's a very good question, and you heard me talk to Congress. [4:35] That is the question. [4:37] But let me ask you. [4:38] The White House did agree to some reforms as you were negotiating all of this. [4:45] You had a letter that was given to the GOP negotiators from the White House saying they would agree to increasing body cam footage, [4:54] to retaining that body cam footage, sharing it with Congress, to limit immigration enforcement at sensitive locations, [5:03] like schools and hospitals. [5:05] It agreed to require officers to clearly display their identification and verbalize their affiliation. [5:13] Now, that's all gone. [5:14] I mean, that was something that, I mean, what's happened due to that? [5:19] I mean, that was at least something you were getting. [5:21] Yeah, look. [5:21] But it's gone. [5:22] At the end of the day, John, they were not willing to make meaningful reforms in my view. [5:27] So, for example, what I was just talking about, holding lawless DHS agents accountable. [5:36] For the killing of American citizens. [5:38] We want some independent, credible review. [5:42] We don't think you can trust the agency that called Renee Good and Alex Preddy domestic terrorists to conduct a credible, independent investigation. [5:52] I mean, do you think that would be credible? [5:54] They refuse to do that. [5:56] In fact, as I said, the state of Minnesota is now trying to sue the FBI and the federal government to get basic information about the killings of American citizens. [6:06] Yeah. [6:07] I mean, it's incredible. [6:08] But let me. [6:09] But what's incredible, though, is that they refuse to allow that independent, credible investigation. [6:15] That's what's amazing. [6:16] I'm not going to give them another $10 billion when you've got two American citizens killed by these agents and they're calling them domestic terrorists. [6:25] And to this day, refusing to apologize to the families. [6:28] And they already have $75 billion in the pipeline. [6:31] So, let me. [6:32] So, the question then is why are they so determined? [6:36] To shut down TSA when, in fact, you're right. [6:41] I mean, ICE does have money right now. [6:43] We just don't want to give them any more. [6:45] So, the president said he's going to. [6:47] He's ordered DHS to pay the ICE officers, even though money hasn't been appropriated here. [6:51] First of all, is he able to do that? [6:54] And for how long? [6:55] I mean, do you have a sense of the legality of that? [6:58] I don't completely. [7:00] But they do have, as we've been discussing. [7:02] They do have a lot of money. [7:03] Billions of dollars. [7:04] Yes. [7:04] That Republicans provided them in what they called. [7:07] A big, beautiful bill where they gave billionaires these huge tax breaks, cut Medicaid. [7:11] But they managed to fund ICE. [7:14] And so, if the president does have that authority, what's he waiting for? [7:19] Okay. [7:19] So, in the time we have left on the war, they are preparing a budget request. [7:26] Pentagon has suggested $200 billion. [7:28] We don't know what it's going to be. [7:30] Do you think that. [7:32] I know you're opposed. [7:33] Does that pass? [7:35] Well, I hope not. [7:36] Because I don't think we should be providing. [7:38] More money for an illegal war of choice to a president who promised during the campaign [7:45] that he would not drag America into new wars, especially in the Middle East and a war that [7:52] is now making us less, not more safe and has already cost American lives, is costing billions [7:57] of dollars every day. [7:59] Oil and gas prices are going up. [8:01] So, the president who said he was going to focus on bringing down prices and ending foreign [8:06] wars has started foreign wars along with Prime Minister. [8:09] But I think that's not near as far back as what we are. [8:11] If you look on the internet in Yahoo and prices are going through the roof. [8:15] So, no. [8:16] We should not keep funding an illegal war of choice that's making us less safe. [8:20] And yet, you have a depletion of weapons, of ammunition, of missiles, of missile defense [8:25] systems. [8:27] I mean, doesn't that need to be replenished whether or not you support the war? [8:33] What happens there? [8:34] These are moneys they're asking for to continue an illegal war of choice. [8:39] Trump, I saw you quoting some of his earlier statements, you know, back more than two weeks [8:44] ago, Donald Trump said, we won this war. And so the question for President Trump, who's completely [8:50] delusional, is if we won the war, why are they preparing to send thousands of more American [8:56] troops into harm's way? And last question, have you been at, you've been to these briefings, [8:59] have you? I have been to these briefings. And you heard what Scalise claims that they're [9:04] substantive. We've heard from other Republicans that they're complaining they're not getting [9:10] information. What's your... No, what you learn in these briefings is exactly what you're hearing [9:14] outside the briefings, which is they don't have any particular objective. It's a constantly [9:19] changing objective. Okay. And there's no end game whatsoever. Meanwhile, the war is widening, [9:25] as you discussed, and Americans are less safe. And we're spending billions of dollars, [9:32] both in terms of taxpayer money and at the pump. All right, Senator Van Hollen, [9:37] thank you very much for joining us. Thanks, John.