From PBS NewsHour.
A partial government shutdown began over the weekend after congressional Democrats and the Trump White House failed to reach a deal that would fund the Department of Homeland Security and its agencies.
The shutdown is slated to continue for the foreseeable future because Congress is on recess this week. As a result, many employees of DHS and its agencies will continue working without pay.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., reiterated Democrats’ demands for major reforms to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and how federal agents conduct immigration enforcement operations.
"The American people deserve to have their taxpayer dollars used to make their life more affordable and not to brutalize or kill them, as was tragically the case with Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti," Jeffries said, referencing the two U.S. citizens killed by federal agents in Minnesota last month.
Jeffries blamed the impasse on Republicans, telling PBS News Hour’s Amna Nawaz that it was "very unfortunate" that "they would prefer to shut down FEMA, to shut down the Coast Guard and shut down TSA," rather than "ensure that ICE and CBP behave like every other law enforcement agency in the country."
Later in the interview, Jeffries said that while there have been staff-to-staff conversations between the sides about the shutdown, "there have not been any principal-level discussions to date, either with the White House or with House and Senate Republican leaders."
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