Democrats reluctance to pull what levers of opposition they have, continues to suggest to me that AIPAC and other special interests bought both sides of the aisle. House just signed off on Defense spending for crying out loud, only 47 Dems opposed.
Excellent news, Jay. And I'm so proud to be from Connecticut with Rosa DeLauro and Chris Murphy. Very complicated, but they have both been at it for a long time. Power to the People!
Thank you for the education about the government funding process. It's good to see that the democrats have power that I didn't realize they had. Now I hope they use it. ICE, as it has been operating, does not deserve to be funded.
I don't make phone calls for multiple reasons, but I do write to them regularly. The ones I write to are my senators, who are incorrigible. My rep in the house thinks the way sane people do.
My rep and one senator are also incorrigible. It's pretty disgusting. 🤢 But I write and call anyway, just to make sure they know how their constituents feel.
Did they catch the spineless ballless disease from the Repugs? Sick of reading and reading and reading words and BS and NOTHING IS DONE. The animal runs FREE!!~!
It’s hard to tell for sure, but I do believe they have been maneuvering it toward this end since December. Note Murray’s warning, and note how the other appropriations bills are getting through, meaning less of the government at risk should there be a showdown over ICE
Jay - if that is what negotiating strategy the Democrats are using getting other bills through - understandable. But with the President threatening to call the Insurrection Act on a State in which there is NO insurrection - the Democrats and any Republican who wants to be on the right side of history better get some backbone.
Donald Trump is talking about Greenland becoming part of the United States whether they like it or not the way a sexual predator talks. And Donald Trump was convicted in a New York court room of sexual assault. Stephen Miller with his “might makes right” is what the Founders of this country, left Europe to escape and DID NOT WANT here. So the United States Constitution was written specifically to avoid that concept.
Where are the Epstein files?
Those files are the ONLY thing that more than three quarters of Americans agree on -
Maybe work the receipt of those into the funding???
The problem is that Trump will take money from somewhere else to fund ICE, which of course is not legal but that hasn’t stopped him yet. And congressional Republicans have shown no inclination to stop him.
Precisely. This expectation from Dems that Trump won't use impoundment and other similar administrative tricks, regardless of their legality, is kind of driving me crazy. He's already done it. (Technically Biden did it, moving money around at DOD to fund Ukraine without Congressional authorization.)
There is NOTHING Russell Vought wants more than a court battle over impoundment. He wrote the OMB chapter in Project 2025. He will find ways to keep using it. If the Dems don't sue, Trump wins in the short run. If they do sue, it'll go to SCOTUS, where Vought expects a win that would be long-run.
Vought expects SCOTUS to overrule those, I assume. Haven't they appealed those decisions?
I'm reminded of the expectation that there would be contempt hearings against the administration for defying court orders. We asked folks like you how it could be done, and your insights were edifying. One thing I didn't expect was for the appeals courts to quash contempt actions by district court judges that had very solid grounds. The need to preserve the judiciary from executive attack has taken precedent over the need to check the executive's excesses.
Where are our Democratic Legislative leaders, Schumer and Jeffries, seizing the moment that the Connecticut Democrats have realized and start publicly announcing that ICE is now out of hand and that the most effective way to mitigate their actions is to make sure their budget is not increased. Perhaps they can throw in amendments that would require agents to perform their duties unmasked, that they be required to wear body cameras at all times and that they be turned on, and that judicial warrants are required on the part of agents to enter homes or to remove people from places of work, school, etc.. Administrative warrants which they currently use ( warrants issued by the agency itself) are not sufficient. In essence, try to force them to use “ due process” when they work. Let’s start telling the public IN PERSON, from the halls of Congress how we want to reign in ICE and start to set the groundwork for immigration reform that Trump prevented from passing before he won the election. Let’s for once get ahead of the whole immigration issue rather than constantly playing defense by saying nothing as they falsely accuse Democrats of wanting “ an open border!” It’s beyond frustrating!
Jay I worked as a federal employee for 30 years and even had to suffer through the budgeting process late in my career, and I learned a lot in this post. Very clear. I’m calling my Senators every day on this issue of limiting ICE’s budget or restricting its operations.
Personally, I’d like to see the entire ICE organization disbanded and start all over again. They can begin by not making an enforcement group with using a name that is loaded with testosterone aggression. Enforcing laws and policies shouldn’t be about fear. It should be about respecting our institutions so we can support them collectively. This manufactured border crisis is a front to establish a militarized fascist rule. And we all know it.
Given the checkered history of Democratic messaging and strateging, and after reading today's substack by Antonia Scatton’s, we must ensure "Freezing ICE" isn't weaponized as "open borders."
To avoid the "Defund the police" trap successfully used again many candidates, we should frame the slow down on funding as a mandatory forensic audit to address an unaccountable culture. It’s not about ending enforcement, but demanding a sane system with better tools, improved vetting, and humane training—prioritizing effective, professional policy over a legacy of lawlessness.
What on Earth is Tim Walz waiting for? He's mobilized the National Guard, and things are rapidly going from bad to worse in Minnesota. ICE is arresting anyone they can grab who even looks at them sideways and shooting people in their cars and on the street, and going from door to door, kicking in front door and busting into people's houses. This is not immigration enforcement, this is an invasion and occupation.
Walz's reluctance to act even when confronted with blatant oppression and Federal violence does not give me much hope that the Dems will summon the political will to hold out on the budget. It's everything that has allowed this regime of corrupt thugs to flourish.
Walz is in a very tight spot. If he tries to turn the national guard against the federal forces, the president will have grounds to declare the whole state in insurrection and send in the military. That is one outcome Walz wants above all to avoid.
But then, isn't that just appeasement by another name? Doing nothing to give the insane toddler a pretext to do what he's planning to do anyway, at some point, simply makes you a beggar to your own demise. I do agree with you that he's in a tough position, but if he continues to try to stay above the fray, I think there is a very real chance that he'll lose control of the situation entirely.
People will conclude that no one is coming to help them, and that they have nothing to lose as ICE rampages out of control, breaking into their homes, grabbing and beating them (and sometimes shooting them) on the street in broad daylight. And they will fight back on their own and Walz will have no control over the situation at all. No one is going to listen to someone telling them to calm down and be nice to their abusers, not someone they see as having not stood up for them when they needed him to.
Hannah, those of us who have never had to make life or death decisions for our state should probably exercise a certain amount of humility in judging the governor in the hot seat.
Just because Governor Walz isn’t blabbering endlessly, doesn’t mean he isn’t doing anything. We can’t possibly know all that’s happening behind the scenes with his state under direct attack from the federal government. No governor has faced this ever.
Fair enough, I don't know what he's doing behind the scenes, and Jay is right that Walz is in a very tough position. None of this should be happening, but here we are. But ICE has become roaming gangs of thugs, grabbing anyone they want out of their cars for no reason, tear-gassing cars full of children, shooting people if they feel like it and taking their stuff. This is anarchy, and it's getting worse every day nothing is done to check them. People will feel they have no recourse other than to take things into their own hands; indeed, it's already happening.
I was just talking to one of my employees. A conservative person in rural NC, and I listened to him praise Jonathan Ross, and how ICE is doing an admirable job.
Hey Geoff hang in there. The latest polling shows majority support in this country for prosecuting Ross. Not only are you not alone, you’re not even in the minority.
Democrats reluctance to pull what levers of opposition they have, continues to suggest to me that AIPAC and other special interests bought both sides of the aisle. House just signed off on Defense spending for crying out loud, only 47 Dems opposed.
Bernie's right, we need a political revolution.
Yes! We just gave a mentally ill president a bigger military! why???
Billions to Israel.
Excellent news, Jay. And I'm so proud to be from Connecticut with Rosa DeLauro and Chris Murphy. Very complicated, but they have both been at it for a long time. Power to the People!
Thank you for the education about the government funding process. It's good to see that the democrats have power that I didn't realize they had. Now I hope they use it. ICE, as it has been operating, does not deserve to be funded.
This explanation of the funding process was educational for me too. Good to know Dems have a tool in their box to thwart the funding of the ICE thugs.
Don't count on it & some GOP need to vote 4 that too
Now that Jay has educated us, call your legislators!
I don't make phone calls for multiple reasons, but I do write to them regularly. The ones I write to are my senators, who are incorrigible. My rep in the house thinks the way sane people do.
My rep and one senator are also incorrigible. It's pretty disgusting. 🤢 But I write and call anyway, just to make sure they know how their constituents feel.
I love it when I end up smarter reading an article - thanks Jay!
Then why aren't they?
Did they catch the spineless ballless disease from the Repugs? Sick of reading and reading and reading words and BS and NOTHING IS DONE. The animal runs FREE!!~!
It’s hard to tell for sure, but I do believe they have been maneuvering it toward this end since December. Note Murray’s warning, and note how the other appropriations bills are getting through, meaning less of the government at risk should there be a showdown over ICE
Jay - if that is what negotiating strategy the Democrats are using getting other bills through - understandable. But with the President threatening to call the Insurrection Act on a State in which there is NO insurrection - the Democrats and any Republican who wants to be on the right side of history better get some backbone.
Donald Trump is talking about Greenland becoming part of the United States whether they like it or not the way a sexual predator talks. And Donald Trump was convicted in a New York court room of sexual assault. Stephen Miller with his “might makes right” is what the Founders of this country, left Europe to escape and DID NOT WANT here. So the United States Constitution was written specifically to avoid that concept.
Where are the Epstein files?
Those files are the ONLY thing that more than three quarters of Americans agree on -
Maybe work the receipt of those into the funding???
By law they are overdue.
One can only hope the Dems take advantage of this particular opportunity and truly let out the sails on ICE and the DOJ.
Now if only they could slow or stop Trump. Oh that’s right, we do have a congress that could do that. Maybe they’ll show up one of these days!
The problem is that Trump will take money from somewhere else to fund ICE, which of course is not legal but that hasn’t stopped him yet. And congressional Republicans have shown no inclination to stop him.
Precisely. This expectation from Dems that Trump won't use impoundment and other similar administrative tricks, regardless of their legality, is kind of driving me crazy. He's already done it. (Technically Biden did it, moving money around at DOD to fund Ukraine without Congressional authorization.)
There is NOTHING Russell Vought wants more than a court battle over impoundment. He wrote the OMB chapter in Project 2025. He will find ways to keep using it. If the Dems don't sue, Trump wins in the short run. If they do sue, it'll go to SCOTUS, where Vought expects a win that would be long-run.
He has not had full success doing this. The courts have ruled against him on a number of impoundment questions.
Vought expects SCOTUS to overrule those, I assume. Haven't they appealed those decisions?
I'm reminded of the expectation that there would be contempt hearings against the administration for defying court orders. We asked folks like you how it could be done, and your insights were edifying. One thing I didn't expect was for the appeals courts to quash contempt actions by district court judges that had very solid grounds. The need to preserve the judiciary from executive attack has taken precedent over the need to check the executive's excesses.
Where are our Democratic Legislative leaders, Schumer and Jeffries, seizing the moment that the Connecticut Democrats have realized and start publicly announcing that ICE is now out of hand and that the most effective way to mitigate their actions is to make sure their budget is not increased. Perhaps they can throw in amendments that would require agents to perform their duties unmasked, that they be required to wear body cameras at all times and that they be turned on, and that judicial warrants are required on the part of agents to enter homes or to remove people from places of work, school, etc.. Administrative warrants which they currently use ( warrants issued by the agency itself) are not sufficient. In essence, try to force them to use “ due process” when they work. Let’s start telling the public IN PERSON, from the halls of Congress how we want to reign in ICE and start to set the groundwork for immigration reform that Trump prevented from passing before he won the election. Let’s for once get ahead of the whole immigration issue rather than constantly playing defense by saying nothing as they falsely accuse Democrats of wanting “ an open border!” It’s beyond frustrating!
The current Democratic leadership is deaf, dumb and mute.
Fire Schumer and Jeffries
We need people with ideas, strategy , and fighters
Not holding my breath on any of this, though.
Jay I worked as a federal employee for 30 years and even had to suffer through the budgeting process late in my career, and I learned a lot in this post. Very clear. I’m calling my Senators every day on this issue of limiting ICE’s budget or restricting its operations.
Well done, John. 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
I wish more people would make these simple calls.
Personally, I’d like to see the entire ICE organization disbanded and start all over again. They can begin by not making an enforcement group with using a name that is loaded with testosterone aggression. Enforcing laws and policies shouldn’t be about fear. It should be about respecting our institutions so we can support them collectively. This manufactured border crisis is a front to establish a militarized fascist rule. And we all know it.
Sure appreciate you, Jay.
Given the checkered history of Democratic messaging and strateging, and after reading today's substack by Antonia Scatton’s, we must ensure "Freezing ICE" isn't weaponized as "open borders."
To avoid the "Defund the police" trap successfully used again many candidates, we should frame the slow down on funding as a mandatory forensic audit to address an unaccountable culture. It’s not about ending enforcement, but demanding a sane system with better tools, improved vetting, and humane training—prioritizing effective, professional policy over a legacy of lawlessness.
I just called my senators office: Patty Murray to thank her for her good work and too and bold in her to stand up to ICE and DHS.
"Democrats Can Stop Or Slow Down ICE"
Ten to one says they won't.
What does Polymarket say
You may be underestimating Patty Murray.
What on Earth is Tim Walz waiting for? He's mobilized the National Guard, and things are rapidly going from bad to worse in Minnesota. ICE is arresting anyone they can grab who even looks at them sideways and shooting people in their cars and on the street, and going from door to door, kicking in front door and busting into people's houses. This is not immigration enforcement, this is an invasion and occupation.
Walz's reluctance to act even when confronted with blatant oppression and Federal violence does not give me much hope that the Dems will summon the political will to hold out on the budget. It's everything that has allowed this regime of corrupt thugs to flourish.
Walz is in a very tight spot. If he tries to turn the national guard against the federal forces, the president will have grounds to declare the whole state in insurrection and send in the military. That is one outcome Walz wants above all to avoid.
Excellent explanation
But then, isn't that just appeasement by another name? Doing nothing to give the insane toddler a pretext to do what he's planning to do anyway, at some point, simply makes you a beggar to your own demise. I do agree with you that he's in a tough position, but if he continues to try to stay above the fray, I think there is a very real chance that he'll lose control of the situation entirely.
People will conclude that no one is coming to help them, and that they have nothing to lose as ICE rampages out of control, breaking into their homes, grabbing and beating them (and sometimes shooting them) on the street in broad daylight. And they will fight back on their own and Walz will have no control over the situation at all. No one is going to listen to someone telling them to calm down and be nice to their abusers, not someone they see as having not stood up for them when they needed him to.
Hannah, those of us who have never had to make life or death decisions for our state should probably exercise a certain amount of humility in judging the governor in the hot seat.
Just because Governor Walz isn’t blabbering endlessly, doesn’t mean he isn’t doing anything. We can’t possibly know all that’s happening behind the scenes with his state under direct attack from the federal government. No governor has faced this ever.
Fair enough, I don't know what he's doing behind the scenes, and Jay is right that Walz is in a very tough position. None of this should be happening, but here we are. But ICE has become roaming gangs of thugs, grabbing anyone they want out of their cars for no reason, tear-gassing cars full of children, shooting people if they feel like it and taking their stuff. This is anarchy, and it's getting worse every day nothing is done to check them. People will feel they have no recourse other than to take things into their own hands; indeed, it's already happening.
I was just talking to one of my employees. A conservative person in rural NC, and I listened to him praise Jonathan Ross, and how ICE is doing an admirable job.
I do not want to live on this planet anymore
Hey Geoff hang in there. The latest polling shows majority support in this country for prosecuting Ross. Not only are you not alone, you’re not even in the minority.
I so agree with you--about living on this planet. As YOU clearly see, there is no "meeting in the middle" with people like that.
There are definitely places in the world better than the US right now.