The minibus of appropriations needs 60 votes to survive. Fetterman said he wants “a conversation on the DHS appropriations bill” and supports “stripping it from the minibus.” But, he stopped short of joining his Democratic colleagues on their call to action.
“I’ve also spent significant time hearing many different positions on the funding bills and maintain that I will never vote to shut our government down, especially our Defense Department,” Fetterman said.
He also asserted shutting down the government would not defund ICE.
“I reject the calls to defund or abolish ICE,” Fetterman said. “I strongly disagree with many strategies and practices ICE deployed in Minneapolis, and believe that must change.”
Fetterman categorized himself as a “very pro-immigration Democrat” while also saying the United States should “deport all criminal immigrants.”
Before the senator released a statement, Gisele Barreto Fetterman, his wife, took to X to slam the nationwide immigration crackdown as “devastatingly cruel and unAmerican.”