House Democrat poised to oversee ICE funding resists progressive push to abolish agency

Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) this week pressed back against the growing progressive push in his party to abolish or defund Immigration and Customs Enforcement.The Democratic lawmaker is known as a more centrist member of Congress and hails from a border district with swing tendencies. After securing a 12th term in Texas’s 28th Congressional District in an unexpected landslide victory, Cuellar is now poised to chair the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, which will offer him a key voice in how funding for ICE is allocated.As progressives and socialists targeting ICE gain power in the House, Cuellar said in a Fox Digital interview published Monday that hard-line views against the agency are not tenable with mainstream Democrats. “I don’t believe in defunding ICE, and I think the majority of the Democrats do not believe defunding ICE,” he said, adding that far-left factions mark just “one part of the spectrum” and that there are many “blue dogs” like himself who desire stronger border and immigration policies.Cuellar said there are “serious rail guards we need put on ICE,” criticizing the agency for targeting illegal immigrants who don’t have violent criminal records, a policy President Donald Trump himself said Sunday is “too tough.” At the same time, the Democrat warned against returning to open-border policies he said the party previously embraced during the Biden administration.“We just can’t open up the border and just say anybody that wants to claim asylum can come to the borders,” Cuellar said. “That policy under Biden administration — I hope that every Democrat running for national office doesn’t do that anymore.”Cuellar’s positioning comes after he has been praised by Trump for having views on immigration “better than most Democrats,” as someone the president said “wanted the Border closed to criminals, drug dealers, people from mental institutions and, above all, murderers and heavy handed criminals that were sitting in jails and mental institutions, and should never have been given the right to be released into our Country.”The South Texas Democrat has long pushed his party to lay off partisan policymaking, and has been known to buck Democrats on several occasions. In April 2025, he was one of four Democrats who joined all House Republicans to pass the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, which requires proof of citizenship to register to vote in federal elections. Last November, Cuellar again slammed partisanship in Congress when he became one of six Democrats to buck their party and back a GOP deal ending the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.Cuellar’s more centrist take comes as he represents a South Texas district with competitive dynamics, typically backing Democrats for the House by wide margins while offering Republican presidential candidates far broader support.President Donald Trump narrowly lost Cuellar’s border district in 2020, the same year Cuellar secured reelection by nearly 20 percentage points. In 2024, Trump won the district by 10 points, and Cuellar won by only about 5 percentage points, appearing to mark fallout with Democrats in the border area over the Biden administration’s relaxed immigration policy.RUBIO DEFENDS TRUMP’S IRAN DECISION: ‘ELECTED TO DO THE HARD THINGS’After Trump’s strong 2024 performance, Republicans hoped to flip the House seat red. But Cuellar secured a landslide victory in last week’s midterm election, defeating Republican challenger Tano Tijerina to win a 12th term by over 36 points.Cuellar’s win came after he said the Biden administration’s Justice Department targeted him because he openly criticized its border policies.