The Case for Keeping ICE and CBP Defunded

Senate Democrats, somewhat to my surprise, have held the line and refused to support funding the Department of Homeland Security in budget negotiations, and so funding ran out on Friday. As my colleague Robert Kuttner reports, Democrats offered Republicans a bargain of funding everything else in the department except ICE and CBP as negotiations continued on immigration enforcement reforms, but they refused.

Now, this does not mean ICE and CBP now have no money. The agencies got a tremendous...