Amid debunked claims from the White House that Republicans are the party of defunding police, one Democrat is taking things to a new level and calling for an elimination of funding for the entire U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Representative Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) said Wednesday that America "must eliminate funding for" Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Customs and Border Protection (CBP), "and their parent organization DHS."
Rep. Rashida Tlaib doesn’t just want to defund the police.
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) July 7, 2021
Add ICE and CBP to the list. pic.twitter.com/x5RQiJpTGk
"Time after time we have seen it as advocates on the ground," Rep. Tlaib explained, "that these agencies are inept" at "humanely guiding migrants through our immigration system."
"Instead, they further continue to terrorize migrant communities located within our communities," Tlaib claimed without offering specific evidence.
These claims come as countless illegal immigrants fall victim to human trafficking and smuggling schemes as they're taken advantage of and abused by cartels and coyotes along the U.S.-Mexico Border, compounding the crisis that's already making America less safe.
Eliminating funding for DHS would only worsen these issues and generally make America more unsafe because — whether Tlaib realizes what her talking points mean or not — the DHS umbrella covers a lot more than just border or immigration security agencies.
The Department of Homeland Security Rep. Tlaib wants to defund was created during George W. Bush's administration in the wake of 9/11 as part of a federal reorganization. Defunding DHS would mean gutting the budgets for not just ICE and CBP, but a host of other agencies including the Transportation Security Administration, Federal Emergency Management Agency, United States Coast Guard, and the United States Secret Service.
America's federal immigration authorities have been overwhelmed for months amid an unprecedented surge in illegal immigrants crossing the border as the Biden administration's disastrous border policies play out. Biden and Harris — after failing to take adequate action to stem the flow of illegal immigrants caused by their actions — left state officials and authorities to secure America's southwest border on their own or ask for help from other states.