California Sen. Alex Padilla wants more restrictions placed on Homeland Security funding as the clock ticks before a Jan. 30 deadline to avert a federal shutdown.
The Democratic lawmaker said he wants assurances that the department overseeing Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Patrol, which he believes has been terrorizing the country, has more accountability.
Padilla cites President Donald Trump's contentious mass deportation plans in Los Angeles and Chicago previously, and the ongoing aggressive immigration enforcement and civil unrest in Minneapolis, which led to the fatal shooting of two U.S. citizens, Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti, by federal immigration officers this month.
"We want to take advantage of this moment to implement real, enforceable accountability measures, to ICE and CPB," Padilla told USA TODAY during a phone interview on Jan. 30. "As long as they are continuing to act like they are above the law, then we shouldn’t be approving additional funding to them."
Padilla's comments come as the threat of another potential federal shutdown lingers, more than two months after the United States endured the longest government closure in its history.
