Dems splinter on ICE
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75 House Democrats broke with Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries today and voted for a Republican resolution that condemned the Boulder attack and celebrated ICE.
Why it matters: Democrats spent the day criticizing President Trump for sending in the National Guard to put down protests in Los Angeles over ICE operations.
- Earlier in the day, Jeffries said the House resolution "is not a serious effort."
- A majority of his caucus, 113 members, voted against the resolution. But a third of House Democrats voted to express "gratitude to law enforcement officers, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel, for protecting the homeland."
The chaotic images out of LA ā and the near universal consensus from Democrats that ICE is overstepping its bounds ā made it an especially difficult day to endorse Trump's immigration authorities.
- "They need to comply with the law," Congressional Hispanic Caucus chair Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.) told us about ICE.
- Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.), a member of Democratic leadership, told us that "everyone" in the caucus is "on board with the fact that what's going on right now is not right and ā¦ a reform is needed."
Between the lines: Some Democrats didn't want to vote against a resolution that also focused on condemning antisemitism.
- But 194 Democrats voted for a separate resolution today that "condemns in the strongest possible terms the June 1, 2025, targeted act of terror in Boulder, Colorado, as a cowardly act of ideologically motivated violence."
The bottom line: Senate GOP leaders think they've got a winning argument with the protests and are urging senators to double down on condemning them, we scooped this afternoon.
ā Andrew Solender, Hans Nichols and Stef Kight
