Illinois
Latest Coverage
See all articles
How Darin LaHood, Eric Sorensen voted on ICE funding bill
U.S. Rep. Darin LaHood voted along with all but one Republican in the House of Representatives on Tuesday to approve $70 billion funding package for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol.
LaHood, a Republican from Peoria, was joined by every House Republican except for Alaska's Lisa Murkowski in voting to send the massive spending package to President Donald Trump's desk. No Democrats voted for the bill in what would be a narrow 214-212 victory for Trump and Republicans.
U.S. Rep. Eric Sorensen, D-Moline, issued a scathing statement about the passage of the spending package.
“Donald Trump should not be able to use ICE and CBP to tear families apart and terrorize my neighbors, which is why I voted against House Republicans' latest attempt to use our tax dollars to fund these agencies,” Sorensen said. “My constituents in Central and Northwestern Illinois want our tax dollars to be used to lower the cost of healthcare and groceries, not a $70 billion blank check for Trump to continue using ICE and CBP for political gain.”
LaHood had not yet issued a public statement about the spending deal as of Tuesday night.
Democrat Paul Nolley, who is challenging LaHood for his seat in this year's midterm elections, called LaHood's vote "shameful" and evidence of "subservience" to Trump.
"Darin LaHood and his fellow Republicans in Congress, for the second time in a year, have jammed through more funding for ICE and border patrol on a party-line vote with no strings attached," Nolley said in a statement. "They circumvented a process that would have led to much-needed and popular reforms of our domestic immigration enforcement. Once this bill is signed by President Trump, ICE will see unprecedented funding levels and will be left unchecked to cause further chaos and division for the remainder of his term.”
The $70 billion spending package for ICE and Border Patrol will provide three years of additional funding for the agencies after they had been left out of the larger Department of Homeland Security appropriations bill that passed Congress in late April. The two agencies had been left out of that bill after the deaths of Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti at the hands of federal agents.