Fund Homeland Security

On Thursday, a terrorist, who immigrated from Sierra Leone and had previously been jailed for conspiring with ISIS, walked into an ROTC classroom at Old Dominion University and shot the professor, who was a decorated war veteran. ROTC students in the class quickly engaged, ending the attack and the attacker’s life before anyone else was hurt.

That same day, a Lebanon-born US citizen armed with a rifle rammed a vehicle into a school at a Jewish synagogue. Thankfully, armed guards were able to stop him before any students were hurt. My prayers are with all affected in both attacks.

Those attacks happened in just one day. In light of the conflict in Iran, our homeland is more susceptible than ever to domestic terrorism. Yet, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is currently shut down.

To appease their base, Chuck Schumer and his cronies have refused to fund DHS because of their hatred of ICE, Border Patrol, and the rule of law in this country. These are the same agencies tasked with stopping and getting rid of the terrorists that Joe Biden let across our border unchecked. They’re needed now more than ever. Thankfully, ICE and CBP law enforcement agents are being paid with funds from the One Big Beautiful Bill, so this pointless shutdown doesn’t actually fully shut down these critical agencies.

The United States Coast Guard protects our maritime borders here at home, and they have folks stationed in Bahrain. They are literally under attack from Iran. While Coast Guard servicemembers paychecks have been covered so far, civilian personnel aren’t getting paid. No one serving in the Coast Guard should ever have to worry about whether they will get their next paycheck, especially when they are actively risking their lives. 

Many TSA agents across the country are now going unpaid. They already weathered the stress of one pointless shutdown, and now they have to again, while trying to make sure that no terrorist boards a plane. The agency was literally created because terrorists boarded airplanes and carried out attacks.

You’ve probably never heard of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), but they are also shut down. That’s a big problem, because cyberattacks are being used routinely, and now is a really bad time to let our guard down.

There clearly isn’t a worse time for Chuck Schumer to pull this stunt than right now. This shutdown of DHS puts our country in an extremely dangerous position. He needs to drop this charade and fund DHS before there’s another attack.

Sincerely,

Sam Graves