Editor's Note: Bill Melugin, a Fox News congressional correspondent, reported Wednesday that Democrat senators rejected the GOP offer to withhold funding for the ERO division at ICE. That compromise was demanded by Democrats who then rejected it, he reported.
Markwayne Mullin, who was sworn in Tuesday to lead the Department of Homeland Security, did so after the Senate voted 54-45 to confirm his nomination. Two Democrats crossed the aisle to vote for Mullin’s nomination, and Sen. Rand Paul voted against him because of an ongoing, personal feud.
On the “Washington Watch” program Monday, Rep. Erin Houchin (R-Indiana) was asked host Jody Hice if the Senate vote for Mullin is a sign of “optimism” on Capitol Hill for a compromise on funding DHS.
“I continue to have optimism that the Democrats will come to their senses,” Houchin shared, “and that they will fund the Department of Homeland Security.”
An impasse over funding DHS is now at the six-week mark. That impasse came after Democrats, reacting to their angry base, agreed to punish Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, for its sweeping, high-profile arrest of illegal aliens across the country.
Far-left protesters around the country are demanding their party leaders “defund” ICE, which they compare to Adolf Hitler’s murderous Gestapo for “kidnapping” people, which is really finding and arresting illegal aliens who have a deportation order.
Many Democrats on Capitol Hill appear wary to defund an entire division within Homeland Security, but they are also relying on their voters’ anger for midterm elections. So those Democrats in Congress have shared a list of demands to “reform” ICE, such as removing masks and obtaining judicial warrants, in order to get their votes to fund DHS.
“This is a classic example of Democrats putting illegal aliens over the American citizens, their interests above American citizens,” Rep. Houchin told the program.
However, a Fox News story published Tuesday said it is Senate Republicans who appear to be willing to cave to Democrats on DHS funding. The story, which cites unnamed Senate Republicans, said GOP senators plan to ask Democrats to fund one division within ICE and leave a second division unfunded for now.
Those two divisions are Homeland Security Investigations, or HSI, which investigates narcotics and human trafficking. The second division being targeted in the compromise is Enforcement and Removal Operations, or ERO. Those are the hated masked agents nabbing illegal aliens in cars, courthouses, job sites, and at Home Depot.
According to the Fox story, the planned compromise is viewed as a betrayal by the House Freedom Caucus, the caucus of staunchly conservative House members.
“Radical progressive Democrats shut down Homeland Security to protect criminal aliens. Why on earth would we hand them exactly what they want by keeping the deportation wing unfunded?" an unnamed source told Fox News.
Despite pushback in the House, the compromise is expected to have the support of President Trump since GOP leaders were huddling at the White House Monday evening to discuss the ICE funding plan for HSI versus ERO.
Back on “Washington Watch,” Rep. Houchin told the program she believes DHS, with Mullin leading it, will demonstrate that American citizens come first.
“We have to get back to putting our citizens before the people who are here illegally,” the GOP rep stated. “House and Senate Republicans, and our president, are doing that.”
