Post by @ubernostrum@infosec.exchange

It is, for some reason, popular on social media to argue that Chuck Schumer must not be elected Senate Majority Leader because, well, lots of incoherent reasons. But one that I see over and over is a claim that he "caved on ICE funding", and gave gobs of extra money to ICE even as they were murdering people on the streets of Minneapolis.

Except. he didn't. Nor did "the Democrats" in general. In fact, they held the line AGAINST funding ICE as much as was possible given their minority-party status. So let's go through it one step at a time.

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James Bennett

@ubernostrum@infosec.exchange 7 hr. ago

More importantly: one of the biggest problems we face as a country right now is that so many of us do not live in the same reality. We're used to thinking of this in terms of awful right-wing Facebook memes, but even our friends who seem to be on our side and support sensible progressive positions can turn out to be living in a bubble of anger-inducing events that never actually happened. If possible, we need to pull them back to actual reality where they can help and do good. If not, unfortunately they may have to be cut off the exact same way a MAGA relative would be.

Ian Bicking

@ianbicking@hachyderm.io 18 min. ago

@ubernostrum
While I think a lot of what you say is right, upon further thought I don't think it's enough. We tried their path during the Biden presidency, and they were fairly successful legislatively but they also failed to protect the nation. And they seem to be signaling they plan to do it all over again. I hope they apply all their expertise to the lame duck session, where I'm sure a lot of nonsense will be attempted, but we do need a reckoning.

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James Bennett

@ubernostrum@infosec.exchange 7 hr. ago

But that triggered a second *partial* shutdown specifically of DHS, which continued through the end of April, becoming the new longest government shutdown in US history. The end of *that* shutdown came when Democrats agreed to a bill that funded airport security and disaster response but *still* did not fund ICE or the related Customs and Border Patrol service (CBP).

James Bennett

@ubernostrum@infosec.exchange 7 hr. ago

So, at no point in any of that did Chuck Schumer, or the Senate Democrats in general, vote to expand or increase ICE funding. Exactly the opposite: they held the line, and eventually it was the Republicans who had to give up and allow passage of budget bills that did not fund ICE. Ultimately they ended up burning one of their limited number of filibuster-proof reconciliation bills on ICE funding in June, and as far as I can tell every Democrat voted against it (but, since they're the minority, it still passed).

James Bennett

@ubernostrum@infosec.exchange 7 hr. ago

Don't believe me? Look it up for yourself. Wikipedia's coverage of the 2025-26 shutdowns and budget fights is clear and lays out exactly the timeline I just cited. Or check out this summary, from someone who by his own admission doesn't like Schumer, admitting that Schumer didn't back down or "cave", and in fact did everything his position allowed him to do to stop ICE funding:

https://prospect.org/2026/04/03/chuck-schumer-congress-budget-dhs-ice-funding/

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