Democrats will have ‘blood on their hands’ over DHS shutdown
Rep. Michael McCaul said Sunday that Democrats will have “blood on their hands” if they continue to block funding for the Department of Homeland Security, warning that closing the agency amid a heightened terrorist threat is “political malpractice.”
Mr. McCaul, who served on the House Homeland Security Committee, said the lack of funding — triggered by Democratic opposition to Immigration and Customs Enforcement tactics — leaves the country exposed at one of its most vulnerable moments, with more than 100,000 DHS employees without paychecks.
“The idea of shutting down the Department of Homeland Security at such a high level of terrorist threat is unconscionable,” the Texas Republican said on “Fox News Sunday.” “It’s a political mistake. It’s criminal.”
The Senate failed to break the deadlock last week. The 51-46 vote to fund the department was partisan, with the sole exception of Senator John Fetterman, Democrat of Pennsylvania.
The partial DHS shutdown began Feb. 14 after lawmakers failed to reach agreement on changes to ICE following the shooting deaths of two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis.
Republicans warn that Democrats are playing with fire and leaving the country vulnerable to terrorist retaliation following the joint U.S.-Israeli military attack on Iran.
An anti-Semitic attacker drove a car packed with explosives into a Michigan synagogue Thursday, just hours after an ISIS-linked gunman carried out a fatal shooting at a Virginia university — part of a rise in domestic terrorism since the start of the Iran war.
The Democrats are not moving.
Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer said discussions on changes to ICE were still “very far away” and rejected the Republican Party’s attempts to use the war in Iran as leverage to break the impasse.
“It’s very easy for them to get all of this funded, just by accepting our common-sense proposals on ICE and the Border Patrol,” the New York Democrat told reporters recently.
Drawing on his experience investigating domestic terrorist attacks, Mr. McCaul cited the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, as well as recent shootings in Austin and Virginia, as well as attacks on synagogues, as evidence of the threat facing the country.
“If they continue like this, they will have blood on their hands,” he said.
