ICE arrests over 32,000 migrants in US illegally in 1st 50 days

(WASHINGTON) — Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Wednesday that Senate Democrats will not provide the votes to pass the House-approved deal to fund the government, heightening the alert for a potential government shutdown at the end of the week.

If a deal isn’t struck to bring over some Democratic support, the government will shut down at the end of the day Friday.

Two days is a long time on Capitol Hill, so there is still plenty of time for a deal to emerge, but Schumer’s statement certainly heats up shutdown fears.

Schumer pointed the finger at Republicans for leaving Democrats out of the funding negotiations.

“Funding the government should be a bipartisan effort, but Republicans chose a partisan path drafting their continuing resolution without any input any input from congressional Democrats,” Schumer said on the floor Wednesday.

Unlike in the House, where Republicans can act unilaterally to pass legislation, the Senate needs Democrats to pass a funding bill.

At least 60 votes are needed for a funding bill to clear key procedural votes, called cloture votes, which means at least seven Democrats would be needed to pass any funding bill through the Senate.

Schumer made clear on Wednesday that right now, Democrats won’t provide those votes.

“Republicans do not have the votes in the Senate to invoke cloture on the House CR,” Schumer said.

For several days, Democrats have been grappling behind the scenes about whether to furnish the requisite votes to pass the funding bill approved by House Republicans Tuesday. On the one hand, many Democrats say this bill gives President Donald Trump and Elon Musk unilateral power to continue slashing the federal government. On the other, some Democrats understand that a decision to vote against the bill could likely force an undesirable government shut down.

After days of closed-door meetings and tight-lipped interaction with the press, Schumer said Democrats will instead advocate for a 30-day clean stopgap bill meant to buy more time for appropriators to complete full-year funding bills.

“Our caucus is unified on a clean April 11 CR that will keep the government open and give Congress time to negotiate bipartisan legislation that can pass,” Schumer said.

Just because that’s what Democrats want, doesn’t mean it’s a vote Democrats will get.

They are the minority in the Senate, and they do not have control over what bills are brought to the Senate floor for a vote. There’s nothing that Democrats can do to force a vote in the Senate on a 30-day clean stopgap measure, but they may be able to wheel and deal with Republicans to get a vote on it.

With Schumer saying that Democrats are not ready to proceed, the Democrats hold the cards. If they do not furnish the votes to clear this procedural hurdle and get on to the bill, things could be at a stand still, and a shut down could be on the horizon.

Meanwhile, House Democrats are urging their Senate colleagues to vote no on the funding bill they almost unanimously opposed when it passed through the House on Tuesday evening.

“House Democrats are very clear. We’re asking Senate Democrats to vote ‘no’ on this continuing resolution, which is not clean, and it makes cuts across the board,” said Vice Chair Ted Lieu, flanked by five other members of House leadership at a press conference at the Issues Conference at the Lansdowne Resort. Lieu’s comments came before Schumer pushed for a 30-day clean stopgap bill.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said that conversations are “continuing” with Schumer all the way down to rank-and-file Democratic members about keeping the Democratic caucus united against the bill.

“The House Democratic position is crystal clear as evidenced by the strong vote of opposition that we took yesterday on the House floor opposing the Trump-Musk-Johnson reckless Republican spending bill,” Jeffries said.

Late Wednesday, Democratic House leaders called on House Republicans to return from recess to Washington to “immediately” take up a short-term measure that would fund the government through April 11.

ABC News’ Isabella Murray contributed to this report.

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(WASHINGTON) — President-elect Donald Trump has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to prevent Friday’s sentencing in his New York criminal hush money case.

In a filing Wednesday, defense lawyers argued that a New York judge lacks the authority to sentence the president-elect until Trump exhausts his appeal based on presidential immunity.

“This Court should enter an immediate stay of further proceedings in the New York trial court to prevent grave injustice and harm to the institution of the Presidency and the operations of the federal government,” Trump’s lawyers wrote.

The move came after a New York appeals court earlier Tuesday denied Trump’s request to delay the Jan. 10 sentencing.

Trump was found guilty in May on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to a hush money payment made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels in order to boost his electoral prospects in the 2016 presidential election.

In asking the Supreme Court to intervene, Trump has presented the court with an unprecedented situation of a former president — whose appointment of three justices cemented the court’s conservative majority — asking the country’s highest court to effectively toss his criminal conviction less than two weeks ahead of his inauguration.

Trump asked the Supreme Court to consider whether he is entitled to a stay of the proceedings during his appeal; whether presidential immunity prevents the use of evidence related to official acts; and whether a president-elect is entitled to the same immunity as a sitting president.

If adopted by the justices, Trump’s argument about immunity for a president-elect could expand the breadth of presidential authority, temporarily providing a private citizen with the absolute immunity reserved for a sitting president.

In a 6-3 decision last year, the Supreme Court broadened the limits of presidential immunity, finding that a former president is presumptively immune from criminal liability for any official acts and absolutely immune related to his core duties. The decision not only expanded the limits of presidential power but also upended the criminal cases faced by Trump.

Despite that favorable opinion, Trump faces uncertainty in convincing the justices to halt his sentencing. The Supreme Court does not typically take on random interlocutory appeals, even by a president-elect.

Trump’s lawyers also argued that the former president’s conviction relied on evidence of official acts, including his social media posts as president and testimony from his close White House advisers. The New York judge in the case, Juan Merchan, ruled that Trump’s conviction related “entirely to unofficial conduct” and “poses no danger of intrusion on the authority and function of the Executive Branch.”

“This appeal will ultimately result in the dismissal of the District Attorney’s politically motivated prosecution that was flawed from the very beginning, centered around the wrongful actions and false claims of a disgraced, disbarred serial-liar former attorney, violated President Trump’s due process rights, and had no merit,” Trump’s filing to the Supreme Court said.

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(LOS ANGELES) — As the Eaton Fire ravaged part of Los Angeles, Galen Buckwalter said he had no choice but to ride his wheelchair through the dark roads of his Sierra Madre neighborhood — after the city was left without power.

The streets were sprinkled with branches and debris, the wind howling and thick clouds of smoke approaching behind him, he said, but he tried to remain calm and focused with just one goal in mind: make it out of the evacuation zone.

Buckwalter, who’s 68 and quadriplegic, relies on his powerchair to move around and be independent. He has a customized van, outfitted to load and fit his wheelchair, but on the day he needed to evacuate the van was getting repaired at a shop nearby.

The Eaton Fire that began on Jan. 7, north of Pasadena, destroyed or damaged more than 10,000 structures, burned through 14,000 acres, and took the lives of 28 people, including several who had disabilities or mobility issues.

“It was gutting to read that,” Buckwalter told ABC News. “I can’t imagine what their final moments were like, and to personalize that — what would it have been like if, say, my powerchair failed? Or if I wasn’t able to evacuate at all?”

More likely to be left behind

According to the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, the death rate among people with disabilities during disasters tends to be two to four times higher than among the general population.

People with disabilities are more likely to be left behind in emergency responses, the group said. For Buckwalter, the Eaton Fire brought to light the vast differences between disabled and non-disabled individuals face during a disaster.

“When anyone is disaster-planning, you focus on things like your support network, what your evacuation plan is, food, clothing or shoes,” said TJ Hill, executive director of the Disability Community Resource Center in Los Angeles. “But people with disabilities have additional things to be considered, such as their transportation needs and alternatives, or medication-planning.”

Buckwalter’s wife and primary caregiver, Deborah Buckwalter, 72, said she had much to consider when packing their “go bag.” She needed to make sure her husband had medications and bowel management devices, she said.

Most importantly, with the van in the shop, they had to figure out an alternative method of transportation — to escape.

Buckwalter’s power chair weighs about 400 pounds. he said it’s not something his wife or even two strong people can haul into the trunk of a car.

He thought about ordering an Uber Wav — a wheelchair-accessible vehicle — he said, but no Ubers were allowed in the evacuation zones. Buckwalter is paralyzed from the chest down; if he left his power chair and used a regular wheelchair, he would lose his independence and mobility. At that time, he didn’t even know when he would make it back home.

“I tell people I am a semi-digital human, my chair is a part of me. As for my van, everyone relies on a vehicle in L.A., and I rely on my vehicle,” he said. “Independently evacuating is not possible, that is the nature of disability, that you need assistance.”

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