'Senate Republicans Have a Plan to Suspend Congressional Oversight of ICE for Trump's Whole Term'

(TPM) "Rather disingenuously, Senate Majority Leader John Thune has proclaimed that the Senate will now fund the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) through legislation that, he contends, has hardly anything in it to fear. He called the DHS budget reconciliation bill he anticipates soon passing the Senate 'anorexic,' a strange term, as though the legislation were like a person with an eating disorder — but in context the majority leader apparently meant to convey the bill was thin, skeletal, near-empty, and utterly without threatening contents."

"Do not let Thune’s description fool you. The plan hatched by Senate and House Republicans, backed by President Trump, to ram a bad if not pestilential bill through by wielding the mighty budget process is a virtual coup. That budget reconciliation, which is not intended to be used for several years of controversial appropriating, allows the Senate to pass legislation with a simple, 51-vote majority. Republicans will be able to pass what they want without any Democratic support, and with few opportunities for Democratic opposition. The process brooks little scrutiny or challenge. It strikes like lightning and steamrolls over democracy’s opposition."

"The DHS reconciliation bill, Republican leadership has said, will go far beyond the expected year’s funding for ICE. As a result, it will cloak ICE from congressional reform for three years — not one, but three, explicitly for Trump’s whole term — armoring officers against any future attempts, by, say, a Democratic House after January, to deal with its abuses. The legislation, as described, would swell two immigration police machines, ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP), to a combined size more than double that of any other federal police force. It would launch a massive, cruel empire of detention and deportation to catch and imprison hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of almost entirely innocuous and helpless people. If congressional Democrats — and hopefully a few Republicans — are going to do their best to wage a battle against this, then, given the forced pace of the budget process, there is no time to lose."

"To understand what spawned this: Senate Democrats have been refusing to end their filibuster of the DHS appropriation bill, begun in the wake of two killings by federal officers in Minnesota, until Republicans agree to ICE reforms to address those abuses. Trump stonewalled Democrats’ attempts to discuss reforms, leading to many weeks of DHS shutdown. As TSA agents went unpaid and airports suffered, Trump belatedly decided to access other funds legislated to pay TSA, which relieved the airport pressure, but still left the shutdown impasse unresolved. Now, Trump and congressional Republicans collectively chose instead a combination of a budget reconciliation bill for ICE and CBP, passed by a process that would crush any Senate Democratic filibuster, plus a noncontroversial appropriation bill, for the rest of DHS. The whole bill is not yet unveiled, even as some Republicans seek a sweeping fiscal version far beyond DHS, but assuming Thune gets his DHS-focused bill, there are telltale signs of its threats."

Continued at link:

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/cafe/senate-republicans-have-a-plan-to-suspend-congressional-oversight-of-ice-for-trumps-whole-term