Virginia Democrats dig in on DHS funding line despite ISIS-linked shooting at ODU, illegal immigrant murder
Virginia’s Democratic senators aren’t budging from their position against funding the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) without reforms, despite a deadly shooting involving a suspect with links to ISIS.
Sens. Mark Warner, D-Va., and Tim Kaine, D-Va., have both consistently voted with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and their colleagues against the GOP’s attempts to reopen the agency in their push for stringent reforms to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
Senate Republicans have warned of the necessity to reopen DHS out of concern about an increase in terrorist activity in the U.S. following Operation Epic Fury in Iran.
That became a reality on Thursday when the FBI announced it was investigating the shooting at Old Dominion University, which left one person dead and two others wounded, as an act of terrorism after identifying the alleged shooter as Mohamed Bailor Jalloh, a former member of the Army National Guard who was convicted of supporting ISIS.
Kaine argued that Senate Democrats have repeatedly tried to reopen chunks of the agency, either through a bill that carved out funding for ICE and CBP or through standalone funding bills that Republicans have blocked.
"Senate Democrats have repeatedly moved to fund — and Senate Republicans have repeatedly blocked — TSA, CISA, the Coast Guard and other entities within DHS that help keep us safe," Kaine said in a statement to Fox News Digital.
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Warner said in a statement to Fox News Digital that he was "heartbroken by the loss of Lt. Col. Brandon A. Shah" and lauded the Old Dominion University students who subdued Jalloh.
But he pointed the finger at FBI Director Kash Patel for playing a role in the incident and demanded that Patel "answer for how the FBI lost track of a known, convicted terrorist sympathizer who was then able to get his hands on a gun and murder an American citizen."
"Following Director Patel’s mass firings of experienced FBI agents and counterterrorism experts, this tragedy emphasizes serious concerns about whether his leadership has left Americans more vulnerable to threats," Warner said.
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Separately, the lawmakers panned ICE's handling of Abdul Jalloh, who was charged with the murder of Virginia resident Stephanie Minter earlier this year.
When asked if Virginia counties should have cooperated with ICE to detain Jalloh, an illegal immigrant with a rap sheet of 30 arrests dating back to 2014, Kaine countered, "How about ICE cooperating with counties?"
"ICE had this guy repeatedly and let him go," Kaine said. "And so should counties do more? Yeah, but what about ICE? Why would ICE, beginning in, like, 2017, 2018 — and that was during Trump’s presidency — not take cases like this seriously?"
Warner called her murder a tragedy and said, "No one can doubt the fact that somebody who has been arrested 30 times should not be in this country."