últimas notícias

A bloc of Democratic freshman congresswomen will break with their party and vote against the negotiated border security spending package being pushed through Congress.

Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., and Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., issued a blistering joint statement Thursday afternoon ahead of a late vote on the measure. The bill, which keeps nine departments and dozens of agencies open until the end of fiscal 2019, needs to be passed ahead of a Friday deadline to avoid a second partial government shutdown.

“This Administration continues to threaten the dignity and humanity of our immigrant population. The Department of Homeland Security has separated thousands of children from their parents, denied asylum to those fleeing danger, and used taxpayers dollars as a slush fund to incite terror in immigrant communities,” the lawmakers said in the statement.

“By any reasonable measure, Donald Trump’s weaponization of ICE and CBP has been a failure. The Department of Homeland Security does not deserve an increase in funding, and that is why we intend to vote no on this funding package,” they wrote, referring to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection.

The quartet, who praised the contribution of immigrants to the country, condemned the bill’s $500 million increase in spending on ICE and the $950 million injection into CBP, respectively. They also criticized the $1.37 billion provision for a physical barrier along 55 miles of the U.S.-Mexico border and the boost in powers and resources for ICE to detain illegal immigrants.

“The funding bill on the floor today does not address any of our concerns and instead, gives more money to these abusive agencies,” they said. “We want to be abundantly clear: this is not a rebuke of federal workers or those who depend on the services they provide, but a rejection of the hateful policies, priorities, and rhetoric of the Trump Administration.”

The group’s dislike for the package is unlikely to derail it from being approved by both the House and Senate. President Trump on Thursday gave assurances to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., that he would sign the bill into law, but McConnell also said the president would also issue a national emergency declaration at the same time in order to divert funding away from the Department of Defense to erect impediments along the entire southern border, given the allocation failed to meet his $5.7 billion demand.