Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, is warning that a shutdown would be "the worst situation," giving the Department of Homeland Security a "blank check."
He was one of seven Democrats who backed the Homeland Security funding bill that has drawn opposition from members of his party in the upper chamber after border agents fatally shot a man in Minneapolis on Saturday.
"If you have a government shutdown, what really happens? ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] got $75 billion in the big-beautiful-slash-ugly bill," Cuellar told Politico.
"[But] you shut down FEMA [the Federal Emergency Management Agency], you shut down TSA [the Transportation Security Administration], you shut down the Coast Guard, you shut down CISA [the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency]," he added.
"I don't think that's a good alternative."
The moderate Texas congressman, who helped draft the bill and serves on the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, told Politico he supports items that didn't make the bill, including banning agents from wearing masks and requiring identification, codifying parts of the agency's use-of-force policy, and notifying Congress about large surges in ICE activity.
But he said he would prefer to revisit those items later.
"I sense an opening where I think we can get more Republicans to work with us," Cuellar told Politico.
He called for independent investigations into the shootings of both Alex Pretti and Renee Good and said he wouldn't weigh in yet on whether to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
"But I'm certainly looking at everything that's going on, and [Trump and his team] definitely need to change course on it," Cuellar told Politico.
Sam Barron ✉
Sam Barron has almost two decades of experience covering a wide range of topics including politics, crime and business.
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