Senator Coons statement on vote on reconciliation bill to fund Trump’s mass deportation agenda

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Chris Coons (D-Del.) released the following statement after the Senate voted to pass the Republican reconciliation bill that funds Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Patrol. The Senate also voted, 54-45, to reject an amendment Senator Coons offered that would have prevented January 6th insurrectionists who attacked police officers from receiving payments from President Trump's $1.8 billion "weaponization" slush fund:

"Instead of working to lower the cost of gas or groceries, housing or health care, Senate Republicans have just jammed through another bill to spend taxpayer money on out-of-control and unaccountable immigration enforcement while shielding them from popular, commonsense reforms that would have brought them in line with law enforcement agencies around the country. How is that going to help a mom who doesn't know how she's going to pay to fill up her car because of Trump's war of choice with Iran? Or working parents whose health care premiums have shot up because of the last reconciliation bill? Or entrepreneurs seeing costs skyrocket because of Trump's tariffs?

"Instead of helping working Americans, Republicans have decided to help a corrupt and unpopular president in his efforts to become even more corrupt and unpopular. This bill does not go far enough to prevent Trump's $1.8 billion slush fund that he can use to pay off cop-beaters, campaign donors, and insurrectionists as he and his hand-picked set of commissioners see fit. My Republican colleagues' belief that they can take the acting Attorney General at his word flies in the face of the actual text of the Department of Justice's settlement and President Trump's own words Wednesday. They have done nothing to stop Trump's amnesty from IRS audits that is a license to commit tax fraud. My amendment tonight would have prevented any dollars from this so-called "weaponization fund" from going to the cop-beaters at the Capitol on January 6; instead of supporting it, many of my Republican colleagues who claim they oppose this fund voted it down. It's clear they believe that there should be one set of rules for the American people and another for President Trump.

"Republicans have once again betrayed the working people they promised to help, worrying more about placating President Trump than American families."