House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., on Tuesday dismissed Republican efforts to use the Trump administration's military strikes against Iran as leverage in a stalemated fight over Department of Homeland Security funding and immigration enforcement reforms.
"[President] Donald Trump launches an unauthorized war in the Middle East. He characterizes it as endless," Jeffries told reporters at the Capitol.
"He decides that he wants to spend billions of dollars to bomb Iran, rather than spend taxpayer dollars to lower the grocery bills that are crushing the American people."
Republicans have argued that heightened threats at home and abroad make it urgent to pass a DHS funding bill and end a shutdown that has stretched into its third week as lawmakers remain deadlocked over immigration enforcement policy.
Jeffries said the conflict in the Middle East has no connection to the dispute over DHS funding and demanded changes that Democrats say are necessary after clashes between federal agents and civilians during immigration operations.
Trump "wants to use his unauthorized war as an excuse to continue spending taxpayer dollars to brutalize or kill American citizens by continuing to unleash ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] without restrictions on the American people," Jeffries said.
"The whole thing is insane. Make it make sense, because it does not," he said, as Democrats continued to oppose the current GOP funding proposal.
House Republicans have scheduled another vote this week on a DHS appropriations bill as they seek to reopen the agency and pressure Democrats to back a measure they say would maintain operations and address security threats during the Iran conflict.
With DHS unfunded, employees are working without pay and the department is managing essential operations under shutdown conditions.
Democrats have tied their demands to a push for new guardrails on immigration enforcement, including steps they say would bring ICE operations in line with standard law enforcement practices, and they have argued that changes are needed to prevent future violence during federal actions.
Republicans have rejected those conditions as unrelated to appropriations and have accused Democrats of exploiting the shutdown to weaken immigration enforcement amid Trump's crackdown.
The impasse is unfolding as Congress also confronts the question of whether Trump can continue military operations against Iran without explicit authorization from lawmakers.
Both the House and Senate are expected to take up war powers measures this week aimed at limiting or ending U.S. military action that lawmakers say has not been authorized by Congress.
Administration officials have defended the strikes as necessary to counter threats from Iran, while Democrats and some Republicans have demanded briefings and votes to reassert Congress' authority over war powers.
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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