Rep. Downing to Newsmax: ICE Fight Not Appropriate in Funding Battle

Rep. Troy Downing, R-Mont., said Friday on Newsmax that Democrats, not House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., are responsible for the ongoing Department of Homeland Security shutdown, accusing them of inserting an Immigration and Customs Enforcement policy fight into a funding battle that had already produced bipartisan agreement.

Downing, who serves on the House Financial Services Committee, said negotiators had been aligned on the underlying appropriations measure before the dispute shifted to immigration enforcement.

"If you take us back to square one, we actually had the four corners agreeing with this appropriations bill," Downing said on "National Report."

He added, "Everybody was bipartisan. Everybody agreed with this appropriations bill to fund DHS. And then obviously things changed. And suddenly the Democrats are demanding changes in how ICE operates.

"If you want to have that conversation, that's completely fair. But that's not something that falls ... underneath an appropriations bill.”

He said Democrats have "completely taken something unrelated to funding out of this and put up a wall to keep us from doing something that everybody agreed this was bipartisan, bicameral, and now they want something else and they're shutting this down. It's just — it's such a stretch to say that this is a Johnson shutdown."

The comments came as Republican leaders continued trying to break the impasse over DHS funding after a record-long partial shutdown that GOP leaders and Democrats have blamed on each other in sharply different terms. On April 1, Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune announced a two-track plan to fully fund DHS as the shutdown had reached 47 days.

Downing said he would support remaining in Washington until a deal is reached, but questioned whether Democrats are willing to move off their demands.

"I'm more than happy to stay there," he said. "I came out of the military. I came out of tech startups. I'm used to working long days. I have no problem sitting there across the table until we get something done. But we have to have folks that are willing to actually have these conversations."

He said appropriators had already done the painstaking work of balancing competing interests before the shutdown fight deepened.

"They've already agreed with these appropriations bills," Downing said. "This is a delicate balance that, you know, the good work they do on the Appropriations Committee, a delicate balance of give and take until you get something that everybody agrees with. And we got there and they're bringing in a political thing that has nothing to do with the policy of spending to break this."

Downing also pointed to a separate Republican effort to address border enforcement funding outside the stalled appropriations process.

"Even the fact that they were holding this up because of ICE and obviously ICE was funded in our reconciliation bill and the One Big Beautiful Bill Act," he said. "So that's kind of a moot point in this in the first place."

On immigration enforcement, Downing endorsed new DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin's suggestion that the administration review whether Customs and Border Protection screening should continue at airports in sanctuary cities that do not cooperate with federal immigration enforcement. Mullin was confirmed by the Senate on March 24 and sworn in by President Donald Trump the same day.

"I think it completely makes sense," Downing said. "And that's what we need, is we need common sense in that agency. And he is bringing that. So I think that's a great idea, and the tip of the iceberg in what I expect to come out of his administration."

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