By EFE
The Senate approved this Thursday an idea to finance with $70,000 million Immigration Service and Customs Management (ICE) already Border Patrolas part of an effort to reopen the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)partially closed since February due to lack of funds.
The Upper House, with a Republican majority, approved the resolution at dawn with 50 votes in favor and forty eight against.
The Democratic opposition in Congress maintains DHS funding blocked since February, by demanding changes in immigration policy after the deaths of two American protesters by federal agents in raids earlier this year in Minneapolis.
With this initiative, the Republicans activated a complex and slow legislative process, known as budget reconciliationwhich would allow us to circumvent the Democratic blockade and vote on the reopening of the DHS.
This mechanism only requires a simple majority in the Senate, instead of the usual qualified majority of 60 votes, which would allow the Republicans, who have 53 seats, to proceed without difficulties.
This is the same process that the Republican majority used last year to approve the big legislative package of cuts taxes promoted by the president donald trump.
“We have a multi-stage process ahead of us, but in the end Republicans will have contributed to guaranteeing border securitys of the United States,” declared the leader of the Republicans in the Senate, John Thune.
The DHS shutdown, which began on February 14, is the longest of a federal agency in the country’s history and has caused long lines at some airports due to the absence of security agents.
Keep reading:
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- Trump and the GOP: insensitivity with humanitarian and electoral consequences
- More and more Americans reject ICE operations to detain immigrants
