Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Ca.) declared Sunday that he is “not giving ICE or the Border Patrol another dime because of how these agencies are operating” as deadly Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids led by the Trump administration have sparked a political and public backlash.
Appearing on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Schiff made the statement after moderator Kristen Welker asked him if he was “willing to vote against funding the Department of Homeland Security if it means partially shutting down the government, again, coming after an incredibly long shutdown.”
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Tell Welker right away that “the Democrats will not fund this,” he continued, “The government will shut down if the Republicans insist that this be combined with other government funds. It will be a Republican decision. They understand that we will not go along with this.”
The California senator noted that Democrats are hoping that “some of the Republicans in the Senate can see those scenes in the streets and be as devastated as we are, and vote against that continuation of violence as well.”
He added: “If they don’t, it will be their decision whether to combine that funding for these ICE agents and Border Patrol agents with all these other government agencies.”
“[Republicans] will make the decision. They are in the majority if they want to shut down the government so they can perpetuate this violence,” said Schiff.
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Schiff continued by vowing that he “will not be a part of it.”
“And I think whoever votes to give them more money to do that will share the responsibility and see more Americans die in our cities as a result.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Welker asked Schiff what the “exact impact” might be if lawmakers withhold funding now, given that “Republicans have already passed $170 billion in additional DHS funding through what they called the One Big Beautiful Bill.”
“One, certainly, I hope, will stop it from becoming even worse,” he replied. “They threw so much money at these agencies. They don’t know what to do with it. And there is no doubt that when we actually have the chance to do the surveillance again, which I hope will happen after this November, you will find all kinds of corruption [with] how is that money coming out.”
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Schiff then told Welker that he believed they would find the money was “wasted by our hands.”
“There will be enormous waste, fraud and abuse at DHS because of how the money is being spent without any kind of real oversight,” he said.
Watch Schiff’s interview on “Meet the Press” below.
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