ROMA, Texas - Despite everything that has happened in Minnesota, U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar says he is not joining many of his Democratic colleagues in calling for the defunding of ICE.
“I don't support the defunding of ICE. I don't think that's the right approach,” Cuellar said, in an in-depth interview with the Rio Grande Guardian.
He said that if ICE was defunded there would be a government shutdown. He said a government shutdown would hurt many important agencies, like FEMA, and TSA, but it would not hurt ICE. This is because ICE and the Department of Homeland Security were given much more money in the Big, Beautiful Bill. They have a buffer that allows them to withstand a government shutdown, Cuellar said.
“Even if we shut down the government or do a continued resolution, guess what, FEMA is going to close down, because that won't be funded, and TSA will be shut down. The Coast Guard will be done, Secret Service also. And the other area is the CI, which is the cyber security area. All that will be shut down. But ICE continues because of the Big, Beautiful Bill. We’re trying to put some real guards on this, and we did put some language in there.
“And by the way, the Big, Beautiful Bill that got passed where they cut Medicaid, Medicare. They funded ICE in the amount of $75 billion and Homeland gets $200 billion and that is outside the appropriation process. That's why I voted against that, that Big, Beautiful Bill.”
Here is a video recording of the interview the Guardian secured with Congressman Cuellar about ICE:
Cuellar said there has been a lot of misinformation about the appropriations bill he worked on.
“They (Democrats) said we gave more money to ICE. It (the bill) does not do that. It actually level-funds ICE. It takes about $115 million away from ERO, the enforcement, removal part of ICE. We funded the rest of ICE to a good amount. (Such as) HSI, which is the part where they go after child exploitation, human smuggling, human trafficking, drugs. We need those officers to go and get the bad people off the streets.”
Cuellar said the appropriations bill also added some “guards rails” to rein ICE in. “I don't recognize some of this actions or this tactics that ICE is taking right now, and we need to make some changes,” he said.
Cuellar pointed out that ICE has a use of force policy. He said they should use it.
“One of the main parts of that use of force policy is that the ICE officers and DHS, all of them, are supposed to, quote, ‘respect human life and the communities that they serve.’ That's their guiding line. They need to follow that guiding line and the policies that they have and when they're supposed to use force, it's all there.”
Cuellar said some Republicans wanted to get rid of the civil rights and civil liberties office components within ICE.
“We put $10 million in and said, you’re not going to close that office. We put money there for cameras, about $20 million for cameras so the ICE officers can use cameras. We also put money there for de-escalation training. We wanted to do more, because there are some things that ICE is doing that we need to continue working on.”
Training is a good example, Cuellar said.
“In the past, to be an ice agent, you would get from four to six months of training. Now, this new administration has changed it, where, if you’ve got no law enforcement training, it goes down to 47 or 42 days, depending if you know Spanish. If you know Spanish, it will be, let's say, 42 days. And if you have a law enforcement background that, let's say you were with a local police force, it goes down to two weeks. I emphasize two weeks. Online. Come on. We have got to go back to the way we used to train people.
“We also need to talk about the masks. We’ve also got to talk about identification. We’ve got to talk about things that they used to do.”
Cuellar said he and his colleagues added some “guard rails” in the most recent appropriations bill to rein in ICE.
“We put $38 million for the Office of Inspector General so they can inspect detention centers. And, by the way, the language I added years ago about members being able to enter detention centers, that language is still there,” Cuellar said.
“Also, for the first time, the Office of Inspector General will be able to ask for a spend plan on the Big, Beautiful Bill. The (Republican) majority did that on purpose. They took that money out of the appropriations and put it on the Big, Beautiful Bill, and we're trying to put some rail guards on that money that got added.”
Cuellar said despite the additional “guard rails” added to rein in ICE, Congress could still do a lot more.
“Can we do more? Absolutely, I wanted a lot more. Let me give you a couple of examples. More money for training, because we have got to go back to the way it was: four or six months (of training) instead of two weeks online. I mean seriously, two weeks online?
“Also, more money for de-escalation. Listen to this. I tried to fight for this. This is something that (U.S. Rep.) Veronica Escobar wanted. Namely, you cannot deport an American citizen. That should be a no-brainer. They (the Republican leadership) said, no. It's a no brainer. They said, no.
“So there are things that we need to do, to put rail guards and oversight (in the bill). And just for them to follow their own their own policy, where their mission is respect for human life and respect for the communities that they serve. That's their guiding part of the use of force that they need to follow.”
