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Five former Secretaries of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) who served in Republican and Democratic administrations urged President Trump and congressional leaders to negotiate a budget deal to reopen the government and fund the agency once led.
"Today we write to you with a simple message: fund DHS's core mission," DHS former chiefs wrote Wednesday in a letter to the White House and members of Congress. "Homeland security is national security, and DHS has a mission to protect the country from the many threats we face."
"We call on our elected officials to restore the necessary funds to keep our country safe and the ministry's critical functions of national security continue uncompromising," they added.
The former secretaries who signed the letter were Tom Ridge, Michael Chertoff, Janet Napolitano, Jeh Johnson and John Kelly, who headed the DHS before beginning his tumultuous tenure as chief of staff. Staff of Mr. Trump. Kelly left the administration on January 2, after having broken reports with the president.
DHS is one of the agencies affected by the partial closure of the government – the longest in US history. Thousands of DHS employees – including Coast Guard units Border Patrolmen and Transportation Security Administration (TSA) personnel – are unpaid due to the extended closure of the House.
locked in a stalemate on the negotiations for the reopening of the government. On Saturday, the President unveiled what he presented as a "compromise" on immigration to end the closure, but the offer was widely criticized the two even before Mr. Trump officially announced it.
Senators must rule on the president's proposal – as well as on the finance bill passed by the Democrat-controlled House, which does not include the request for funding from the border wall of Mr. Trump – Thursday afternoon. Both proposals currently lack sufficient support to be adopted.
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