Coney Island lawmakers demand homeland security funding
Wednesday’s arrest of three terror suspects from Brooklyn, one of whom told investigators he wanted to bomb Coney Island, is proof that Congress should vote to provide full funding to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to keep the agency from running out of money, according to two local lawmakers.
U.S. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries and Councilmember Mark Treyger, both Democrats who represent Coney Island, issued statements calling on Congress to approve a clean funding bill for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and not tie-in the funding bill with a different piece of legislation put forth by Republicans that is aimed at undoing President Barack Obama’s executive action.
Obama’s executive action would grant amnesty to certain undocumented immigrants to protect them from being deported.
The Senate voted Wednesday to separate the two bills so that full funding could be restored to the DHS before the agency runs out on money on Feb. 27. But conservative House members indicated that they wanted the anti-immigration bill and the homeland security funding bill to be packaged together.