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DHS raids are the stuff of Rand Paul’s nightmares. What will he do about it?

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Rand Paul made his name as a gadfly preaching about the dangers of a tyrannical federal government. Now, after the killings of two Minnesota residents at the hands of Homeland Security agents, the Kentucky Republican has a chance to do something about it.

The 63-year-old, who spent years on the outskirts of the party, is now at the center of the Senate’s response to the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti, which have sparked new criticism of the administration’s immigration enforcement policies and raised many of the same civil liberties questions Paul has long been asking.

As chair of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, he’s already forced a trio of top immigration officials to agree to testify, publicly criticized the administration’s response to the Pretti shooting and even raised the possibility Congress might step in if the administration refuses to conduct an independent investigation of that incident.

“For people to have confidence in government and confidence in law enforcement … we have to be very honest,” Paul told reporters. “I don’t think anybody in America believes he was assaulting those officers, so we have to tell the truth.”

But Paul — who is already in President Donald Trump’s doghouse as an inconsistent GOP ally — is still walking a fine line.

He repeatedly refused this week to weigh in on if Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem should leave the administration, saying he was “reserving judgment for now.” And he has also taken pains to separate himself from some of DHS’s most aggressive Democratic critics, telling reporters he is “for restoring trust in ICE” — not abolishing it.

Were Noem to depart, Paul could find himself in an especially precarious position. As chair of the Homeland Security panel, he would essentially serve as gatekeeper for the confirmation of any replacement. A single Republican defection on the committee could block any Trump nominee who does not have Democratic support.

Speaking to reporters, he connected his skepticism about the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement practices to his longstanding ideological crusade.

“I mean, it’s something I’ve been concerned with the whole time I’ve been here,” he said. “What are the rights of individuals? Who can you kill? When can you kill them? What is war? What is not war? What is due process? When do you have Fourth Amendment protections? So all these things are incredibly important.”

For now, it’s an open question as to how far he is willing to risk his political career to push back against Trump’s historically aggressive agenda — with GOP colleagues skeptical he would block a Cabinet pick.

He might not have to go to such extremes. After Paul publicly questioned why the DHS agents involved in the Pretti shooting were still on the job Tuesday, the department announced Wednesday they had been placed on leave — though no steps have been publicly taken toward the independent probe the senator is seeking.

While Paul’s skepticism of federal power, both domestically and abroad, has long made him suspect in the eyes of Trump loyalists, his decision to use his committee gavel to seek answers from DHS is earning support from fellow Republicans — many of whom are uneasy over the administration’s enforcement surge in Minnesota, even if they aren’t willing to go as far as Paul.

“Terrible — I mean, this is why there needs to be a full investigation as the president said,” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), a member of the Homeland Security panel, told reporters earlier this week. “I’m a firm believer in qualified immunity for law enforcement, but qualified immunity isn’t total immunity.”

Hawley added that the Feb. 12 hearing, under Paul’s direction, would be “thorough.”

Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who has disagreed plenty with his libertarian-leaning GOP colleague, also backed up Paul’s decision to have the hearing with the heads of ICE, Customs and Border Protection, and Citizenship and Immigration Services.

“I think it’s important,” Thune said.

Underscoring the unusual role Paul occupies in the Senate, Democrats also view him as a potential ally who might help them force answers out of top administration leaders. While the Kentucky Republican frequently clashes with Democrats, especially on fiscal matters, he’s teamed up in recent weeks on bipartisan efforts to check the president’s war and tariff powers.

Sen. Andy Kim (D-N.J.), another member of the Homeland panel, praised Paul’s decision to call in the administration officials to testify.

“We’ve had a number of other experiences where there have been issues that are very much on the people’s minds, and Congress and colleagues have not called in the administration,” he said in an interview. “This is a good sign from his proactive nature.”

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer also praised Paul as an example of a Republican who understands that “the American people demand truth and accountability right now.”

Paul, however, is making clear his concerns about the administration’s response to Saturday’s shooting aren’t personal against Trump. And there are signs his orbit is treading lightly around the Minnesota crisis.

After Pretti’s killing Saturday, Doug Stafford — Paul’s longtime chief strategist — posted on X, questioning why Border Patrol officers were in a city nowhere near the border and “when did it become illegal to carry a gun in America.”

He later deleted the post. A spokesperson for Paul’s office did not respond to a request for comment on that decision.

“[Paul is] not a partisan voice,” said Brian Darling, a lobbyist who previously worked for Paul in the Senate. “He’s somebody who is going to look at the issue and look at it from a conservative perspective. And look at it from the perspective of preserving liberty. That’s the way he analyzes issues.”

In the case of the Minnesota shooting, Darling said Paul would not simply look the other way because of his Republican colleagues.

“He’s not going to play team ball on an issue where he sees important issues like the Fourth Amendment, the Second Amendment at risk,” he added.

Often a maverick among the Senate GOP, Paul was cast aside as the party crafted Trump’s landmark domestic policy bill last year. As Homeland chair, Paul had jurisdiction over one of the legislation’s central pillars — a surge in new spending on border security.

But he clashed with the Trump administration and Senate leadership over how much to give the agencies in question. Members of his panel, at the time, suggested Paul was operating without consulting his peers.

His legislative text was rejected. Budget Committee Chair Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), who has a history of butting heads with Paul, instead led the drafting of the language.

As the fury mounted over Pretti’s killing Monday and Democrats started uniting around blocking funding for ICE, Paul offered a public reminder of how much funding the agency already had.

“The Senate is debating another $10B for ICE. But Congress already locked in nearly $19B a year for four years,” he wrote on X. “Even if this fails, ICE will still have about 87% more funding than last year.”

Jennifer Scholtes contributed to this report.

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Congress

Capitol agenda: Cory Mills under fire but not going anywhere

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You may hear House members calling for his ouster after the resignations of Reps. Tony Gonzales and Eric Swalwell, but Rep. Cory Mills looks to be on solid footing.

Despite months of scrutiny over a range of conduct issues — including accusations of illicit involvement in federal contracts and stolen valor — members of both parties say the circumstances are different for the Florida Republican.

Republicans and Democrats are leaning on bureaucratic rationalizations before leaping to a fresh wave of expulsions, despite growing alarm around congressional sleaze.

They say they’re waiting for the conclusion of an active House Ethics investigation into Mills before moving to crack down on him — a similar approach they’re taking with Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, who is set to hear her formal punishment from Ethics next Tuesday after the panel found her guilty of two dozen counts of misconduct.

“I have a three part test — Has the member admitted to the conduct in question? Has there been a finding by a court? Or has there been a finding by the Ethics Committee?” Republican Rep. Nick LaLota said. “I don’t think that the Mills case meets any of those three criteria.”

“If there’s expulsion votes, if they’re political, I’m not interested,” said Rep. Brad Schneider, the chair of the centrist New Democrat Coalition. “If they are based on facts established by process, I’m gonna follow the facts.”

Mills said in an interview he had told Speaker Mike Johnson he was “unfairly lumped into this” with Swalwell and Gonzales as well as with Cherfilus-McCormick. Unlike Cherfilus-McCormick, he is not facing a federal indictment. And unlike Swalwell and Gonzales, he is not facing charges of sexual misconduct — something Mills said Johnson has acknowledged.

It’s not clear where the investigation into Mills stands. Johnson told reporters Tuesday he is “looking into” it. Republicans have quietly worried about the accusations against Mills for some time, but the GOP’s narrow House majority has complicated the prospect of leadership engaging in any sort of accountability.

What else we’re watching:

— FISA lives to face its next test: Johnson is figuring out how to move forward with a clean, 18-month extension of a key spy power — Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act— as several Republicans plan to vote against a procedural step up for consideration Wednesday. Talks are ongoing between GOP leaders, hard-liners and the White House as the program faces an April 20 expiration.

— Sanders to Force Israel Arms Sales Vote: Sen. Bernie Sanders plans to force a vote Wednesday on two resolutions to block nearly half a billion dollars in U.S. arms sales to Israel. There’s renewed energy behind Sanders’ push as Democrats separately try to rein in Trump’s power to continue the Israel-US war in Iran.

—Vought’s Budget Pitch: White House budget chief Russ Vought is set to defend Trump’s $1.5 trillion Pentagon budget request when he appears at House Budget Wednesday. Meanwhile House Armed Services Chair Mike Rogers said Tuesday he expects to craft defense policy legislation with a $1.15 trillion budget topline, a move that could make the upcoming NDAA more politically palatable to Democrats.

Riley Rogerson and Hailey Fuchs contributed to this report.

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GOP leaders struggle to keep $75B immigration plan narrow

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Senate Republicans plan to forge ahead next week with the first formal steps to pass a party-line immigration enforcement bill totaling $65 billion to $75 billion.

But as GOP leaders scramble to meet President Donald Trump’s June 1 deadline to clear a bill funding ICE and Border Patrol for more than three years, they are facing competing visions within their ranks for what else should be tacked on as the party runs out of time to score more legislative wins before the midterms.

“I think this is it. This is our shot,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) told reporters Tuesday, predicting that Republicans would not end up enacting a third filibuster-skirting budget reconciliation bill before Election Day.

“And that’s why you sense some frustration among a lot of the senators,” he added. “Some of which has been voiced and a lot of which it hasn’t.”

Senate Majority Leader John Thune laid out the up-to $75 billion price tag for the bill to reporters Tuesday. The bill’s topline was in the range of what Republicans had been telegraphing over the past week but could spark pushback from at least one fiscal hawk — Senate Homeland Security Chair Rand Paul — because it’s higher than the roughly $50 billion it would cost to fund immigration enforcement at current levels for three years.

The worry among some senior Republicans is that expanding the scope of the bill will slow down the process and complicate the measure’s chances of passing. Instead, they want to simply fund the immigration enforcement agencies not covered under the Senate-passed measure House Republicans are still waiting to clear, two months after funding first lapsed for all of the Department of Homeland Security, which houses the immigration agencies.

“We have members who want other things. I mean, I want other things,” Thune said Tuesday afternoon. “But obviously we have a specific mission and purpose here.”

Senate Budget Chair Lindsey Graham (R-S.C) is expected to release the budget resolution as soon as this week to set the general framework for the final package.

Senate GOP leaders are encouraging Republican senators to offer their ideas as amendments during the chamber’s marathon “vote-a-rama” debate, during which lawmakers are allowed to offer as many germane amendments as they wish.

“There was some suggestion that it ought to be a little broader and everything. I think that’s where the default position is, ‘Then put it in an amendment, and we’ll see if it can pass,’” West Virginia Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, the No. 4 Senate Republican, told reporters Tuesday afternoon.

Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso said Tuesday the chamber intends to vote “next week” on approving the fiscal blueprint that will allow them to later pass the party-line immigration enforcement bill.

Thune can lose three of his own members and still win on the floor with Vice President JD Vance as the tie-breaking vote, and Republicans are cautiously optimistic they will have the votes next week.

But some fiscal hawks aren’t yet backing down from their demand that the immigration enforcement bill be paid for, which could broaden the scope of the measure as well as the number of issues where Democrats could force tricky amendment votes.

Even if Senate Republicans succeed in adopting the budget framework next week, an identical budget measure also needs to clear the House. GOP hard-liners rejected the Senate’s last attempt to end the DHS shutdown and are now demanding that Republicans use the party-line reconciliation process to fund all of the department.

Thune and Speaker Mike Johnson had been expected to hold a weekly meeting Tuesday where they would discuss the path forward on DHS funding, among other issues. But Thune said the sitdown was punted to Wednesday because of scheduling issues.

Mia McCarthy and Calen Razor contributed to this report.

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Mike Johnson faces FISA mayhem

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A key procedural step to extend U.S. government spy powers ahead of next week’s deadline is in limbo as members of the House Rules Committee Tuesday night paused their work on the legislation.

GOP leaders are trying to figure out how to get enough support for a clean extension of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act that’s a priority for President Donald Trump, despite opposition from House GOP hard-liners.

Senior Republicans are planning to reconvene the panel at 10:15 p.m. Tuesday to try to make progress, and Republicans privately say they are closer to an agreement, according to five people.

House GOP leaders appear more open to discussing an amendment involving warrants, and hardliners also want a previously promised ban on a central bank digital currency to advance through some vehicle. In exchange, House GOP leaders are pushing for a longer extension than 18 months.

Speaker Mike Johnson wants to put a clean, 18-month FISA extension on the House floor Wednesday with the goal of final passage before the program expires April 20. But at least a dozen GOP hard-liners are vowing to oppose a procedural vote if they’re not given the chance to amend the legislation.

GOP leaders can lose two Republican votes on the committee and still advance the measure.

The next hurdle will be passing the party-line procedural vote on the House floor. Several Republicans, including Reps. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.), Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) and Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), suggested they would be open to tanking the rule vote on the floor with Johnson’s razor thin majority.

Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), a Rules Committee member, said in an interview he told the White House he would vote against the clean 18 month extension unless an amendment to prohibit warrantless surveillance of Americans was added.

“What I want is a FISA amendment for warrants,” Norman said. “You get that, we’ll be good.”

The problem for House GOP leadership, however, is that a warrants amendment is likely to pass if they allow a vote on it, scuttling Trump’s demand for a clean extension. Some Republicans also want an amendment to prevent third-party data brokers from selling information to the federal government, according to five people involved in the talks.

Administration officials invited some of the GOP holdouts to a 6:30 p.m. meeting at the White House Tuesday night, but many of them went instead to the regular meeting of the House Freedom Caucus a few blocks from the Capitol to discuss their own plans.

Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), one member who has supported the White House’s position of a clean extension, was at the Freedom Caucus’ meeting Tuesday night.

GOP leaders have been privately discussing a backup option of a shorter extension, such as 12 months, which some conservatives are open to. But several holdouts said that would not be enough to get their support.

“I don’t think a clean extension has the votes to pass,” Clyde said. “No matter how long it is.”

House GOP leaders have also discussed simply putting a rule for the clean extension on the House floor Wednesday, and letting Trump see who opposes it, before they pursue any backup plans.

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