Murray must play hardball with GOP over DHS and ICE funding

Published 1:30 am Monday, February 9, 2026

On Jan. 29, Sen. Patty Murray voted to split off Homeland Security funding from the other five funding bills. Why did she relinquish our only leverage to implement the reforms we desperately need? As she admitted on Bluesky, “ICE is now sitting on a massive slush fund it can tap whether or not we pass a funding bill.” Exactly. Holding up DHS funding alone will not put enough pressure on Republicans. If Murray is unwilling to go along with a government shutdown, how does she intend to “keep pushing Republicans to work with us?” Will she appeal to their sense of decency and justice?

We know Republicans in Congress are scared of Trump. But, this far into a constitutional crisis, it seems many are OK with the direction this country is headed. Murray is naïve to think that Republicans will “work with us on serious reforms” without being forced to the table. Is she waiting for most of their voters to demand ICE reforms? (Some are, and I thank them for that). Even if that were to happen, why should we expect Republicans in Congress to follow through and not just deploy their usual smoke and mirrors?

Before Alex Pretti was killed, Murray was going to vote yes on the DHS appropriations bill. On Jan. 20 she wrote: “The hard truth is that Democrats must win political power to enact the kind of accountability we need.” I fear she is willing to wait for a moment that won’t arrive, as a Democrat majority in the 2027 Senate remains unlikely. How much more brutality will be dished out on both citizens and non-citizens before the senator takes extraordinary action to meet this moment? If she continues to play it safe, she needs to be primaried in 2028.

Jacob Eichert

Camano Island