The 232 athletes on the U.S. Winter Olympics team are supported by the entire nation. Watching family, friends and supporters waving American flags and applauding world-class performances makes all of us feel united. Yet watching how Congress is dealing with the final appropriation bill for the Department of Homeland Security suggests the two parties are enemies, not members of the same team.
Over the past month, the methods used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers deployed in Minneapolis have resulted in two U.S. citizens being killed. The local county medical examiner labeled one them as a homicide. ICE press releases tout identifying, apprehending and deporting “illegal aliens, including murderers, sex offenders, gang members, and terrorists.” Yet the techniques being used resemble a military operation in a foreign country, not a domestic law enforcement effort.
Democrats in Congress have provide a list of 10 conditions to support the DHS appropriation bill. These include ICE officers not wearing face coverings and access to private property requiring a judicial warrant. Republican leadership have rejected such conditions.
There is no precedent to any type of law enforcement wearing face coverings except for health reasons. In this case, the masks appear to be used to hide identity from onlookers so they cannot be recognized if their actions violate laws and cause harm.
Requiring judicial warrants are consistent with the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution, which gives people the right to protect their homes and private property from unlawful intrusion. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson does not support the need for judicial warrants, stating they would slow ICE operations. He is of course correct that this would make ICE operations inoperable. Yet legality should have priority over speed in dictating how ICE operations are conducted. If speed takes precedent, this places our nation on a pathway to lawlessness with ICE, as well as other government agencies.
The courts have pushed back on many ICE actions. One judge noted ICE had likely violated more court orders in January than some federal agencies have violated in their entire existence.
Of course, none of this would be happening if Congress was taking one of their responsibilities seriously, providing checks and balances on the executive branch to ensure that it does not overstep its authority and stay within the boundaries set forth by the Constitution. By not providing any guardrails around executive authority and giving it the power to execute anything that it wishes, Congress has made Minneapolis the poster child for such legislative irresponsibility and constitutional violations.
If anyone is to be held responsible for the situation in Minneapolis, and the associated budget impasse, the speaker of the House should own a share of the blame. The president’s responsibility is to serve the nation within the boundaries of the Constitution. When he oversteps such authority, Congress must exert its authority to reign in any such actions. Unfortunately, it has mostly not done this over the past year, giving the president carte blanch to do anything he wants.
Recall that the president once said that “if it saves the country, it is not illegal.” If actions are needed to “save the country,” Congress has the power to enact laws that would make any such actions legal. Instead, they have mostly looked away, allowing any illegal actions, such as some of the ICE operations in Minneapolis, to proceed.
What the Democrats are doing with the DHS appropriations bill is an 11th-hour attempt to fix a problem that should have been avoided with the passing of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer had an opportunity to do that back in spring 2025, and he voted to pass it, ultimately leading to the situation today. Funds available to ICE increased by 600% with the bill, a red flag that appears to have been ignored.
The two parties will always have conflicts and disagree about what each believes is best for the country. Given that Congress controls the “power of the purse,” they can exert significant influence on what the president wants and what he executes. Yet the tone in Washington does not resemble people in Congress being on the same team.