Migrants and supporters call for defunding Department of Homeland Security
On the 10th of December, migrants and their supporters held a protest at the White House demanding a clean DREAM act and renewal of Temporary Protected Status (TPS). In addition they called on Senator Chuck Schumer and others in Congress to defund or at least cut the budget for the Department of Homeland Security, of which both ICE and CBP are large components.
A speaker at the protest described the horrors of small children being ripped from their parent's arms by the thugs of Customs and Border "Protection" and cited only the chance luck of being born an "acceptable" color and on the "right side of the border" as why her parents didn't get the same treatment.
On Dec 21, if no budget deal is reached, the Dept of Homeland Security(DHS) will run out of authority to spend money. Most of the Federal government has already been funded, but not DHS, not the Dept of the Internior (National Park Service, US Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management etc), and several others. Social Security checks and paychecks for retirees (for services already rendered) will not be affected, but ICE and CPB employees will be ordered to work WITHOUT PAY, hopefully causing them to walk off the job. Trump himself is the major impediment to any deal, as he is demanding $5 billion for his Berlin Wall on the Rio Grande as a condition to any budget.
It thus may be in the interests of migrants for the dispute over Trumps' Wall NOT to be resolved, as defunding ICE and CPB will weaken these thugs and break their morale. Working without a paycheck should be a strong demotivating experience for ICE and CBP bullies. Certainly nobody should be paid for separating small children from their families!
The scene outside the White House
