Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., on Tuesday slammed Democrats for conditioning Homeland Security Department funding on a requirement that federal immigration agents must obtain judicial warrants to carry out key enforcement activities.
Johnson, in an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” called that proposal “completely unworkable.” But it’s Democrats’ top demand for funding DHS, which is set to lose funding by the week’s end if Congress can’t pass an appropriations bill.
Johnson said he hopes Congress can pass another stopgap measure to buy time, but suggested Democrats have been unreasonable in negotiations so far.
“They want to defund DHS just like they want to defund police,” Johnson said of his political opponents. DHS includes the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, whose deportation efforts have grown especially controversial after an aggressive surge in Minnesota stirred national unrest.
Democrats “want to make it almost impossible for ICE to do its job,” Johnson, a member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said.
