President Donald Trump was questioned by reporters whether he intends to compromise on the issue of requiring Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to obtain a judicial warrant to make searches and arrests in an Oval Office press pool on Tuesday — and he appeared blindsided by the question, acting as if he had never even considered this issue at all.
“Are you open to negotiating on warrants when it comes to ICE?” asked a reporter. “This is an ask from [Senate Minority Leader Chuck] Schumer.”
“Meaning?” asked Trump.
“Requiring search warrants for ICE,” the reporter repeated.
“I haven’t even thought about it. I’m not, I’m not thinking about search warrants,” said Trump. “Yeah, [Senator] Lindsey Graham is going to answer that one.”
Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, said he is not interested in negotiating on that issue. “If we have to get a search warrant to get 15 million people out, Schumer’s telling me he doesn’t want them out,” he said.
The issue of search warrants, and of putting an end to the so-called “roving gangs” of ICE and Border Patrol agents in large cities who can stop, question, and arrest anyone they wish, even if they show documentation of their citizenship, has become a huge focal point of Democrats’ demands to avert a shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security, as they demand accountability for brutal crackdowns on protesters in Minneapolis that left multiple people dead.
After heavy pressure, Trump and congressional Republicans agreed to split off DHS funding from the package funding the rest of government for a full year, and pass a 2-week stopgap for DHS funding to allow time for bipartisan negotiations.
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