Washington, D.C. — With the funding deadline for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, or DHS, quickly upon us, the Center for American Progress hosted today a press call with Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI), CAP Vice President of Immigration Policy Marshall Fitz, and Vaughn Glenn, an American Federation of Government Employees Local 778 member and Transportation Security Administration agent at Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport. The speakers discussed the impact of a shutdown on the lives and families of DHS employees and the implications for U.S. national security and the president’s executive action on immigration, and all three vehemently called on Congress to avoid the shutdown. Congress has until 12:00 a.m. ET Saturday to pass a funding bill for DHS, after only temporarily funding the agency since December. Impacted organizations include Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the U.S. Secret Service, and the Coast Guard.
“So to sum up their tragically misguided strategy here: They are playing politics with national security funding and the paychecks of frontline security workers in order to block administrative directives that will actually make us safer, while growing the economy and reducing the deficit,” said CAP’s Marshall Fitz on the call.
Listen to the full recording of the call here.
For more information or to speak with an expert, please contact Tanya S. Arditi at [email protected].
###