DHS Funding Negotiations, Russia Attacks Ukraine Power Grid, Nationalizing Elections

0:02The partial government shutdown is over and now Congress has to do the rest of its job. Lawmakers have nine days to negotiate restraints on immigration enforcement. What are they willing to accept? I'm Steve Inskeep with Michelle Martin, and this is Up First from NPR News.

0:20Russia is hitting Ukraine's power grid again after agreeing to stop those attacks while peace talks move forward. Ukraine's president says he's waiting for an American response. So is diplomacy with Moscow making any difference? And President Trump is openly calling for the federal government to take over elections in some states. The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting. What does the Constitution have to say about that? Stay with us. We'll give you news you need to start your day.

0:52The partial federal government shutdown has ended. The House voted 217 to 214 on Tuesday to fund most government offices through September. You'll notice Michelle said most. Congress now has just nine days to finish negotiating the budget for the Department of Homeland Security. Lawmakers seem far apart over changes to immigration enforcement. Democrats are demanding changes after federal agents shot and killed two Americans in Minnesota. NPR Immigration Policy correspondent Jimena Bustillo has been tracking all this and is with us now to bring us up today. Good morning, Jimena. Good morning, Michelle.

1:28So the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency, ICE, already got$75 billion from Congress last summer. So what's the difference between that and what Congress is trying to come up with after February 13th? So in this instance, we're talking about funding for all of DHS and not just ICE through the end of the fiscal year. So that$75 billion that you're talking about was in the one big beautiful bill, and that was just for ICE. It made Immigration and Customs Enforcement the highest funded federal law enforcement agency. Now, Congress still has to, by law, do what's called annual appropriations.

2:03And that's the baseline budget for each department that has to get renewed every year or we have these shut down. OK, so this is for the whole department and not just one agency. And so that's why this is a big deal. OK, so body cameras keep coming up. Democrats want immigration officers to wear body cameras. But DHS Secretary Kristi Noem already said this week that every officer on the ground in Minneapolis specifically would be issued a body camera. So what's the issue they still need to negotiate? Right. And keep in mind that that wouldn't necessarily happen overnight. It could take over 180 days to fully implement that just in Minneapolis.

2:39Noem also said that as funding is available, the body camera program would be expanded nationwide across the agency to all agents. But Democrats want more than just Noam's word for it. They want it written into law. And the current DHS budget bill negotiated by Congress does provide$20 million for body cameras. But Democrats want to mandate that they actually be used. And this is just one of the asks that has been discussed. And this one has gotten some bipartisan support, but other requests have been more contentious. Like what? Democrats want to mandate that immigration officers only use warrants signed by a judge to make arrests, for example.

3:20They say that the current use of administrative warrants, which are written by DHS itself and not signed by a judge, raises questions about violations to people's Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable search and seizures. While some Republicans are interested in negotiating and talking about this, others, like House Speaker Mike Johnson, have poured cold water all over this. Democrats also want to ban officers from using face coverings. But Republicans are broadly opposed to this and say that it would make it easier for people to dox federal agents. OK, so they have nine days. The clock is now ticking.

3:54I'm wondering if lawmakers really think they can get this done. What does your reporting suggest? You know, many members are skeptical that less than two weeks is even enough time to come up with such a large compromise. If they can't get this done, they could risk a shutdown of just DHS, which puts at risk non-immigration parts of the agency like disaster response and TSA. That is NPR's. Ximena Bustil. Ximena, thank you. Thank you.

4:26Peace talks aimed at ending the war in Ukraine resume in Abu Dhabi today. They've advanced to the point where Ukrainian and Russian negotiators are now meeting face-to-face with the U.S. President Trump has said he is more optimistic than ever. Last week, the president asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to hold off on striking Kiev and other Ukrainian cities during a frigid winter while the negotiations are underway. We're going to go now to NPR's Eleanor Beardsley, who is in Ukraine's capital, Kiev, to hear more. Good morning, Eleanor. Good morning, Michelle. So tell us about this pause the president asked for.

4:59Did that happen? Well, yeah, it did. For a couple nights, Ukraine's cities did not get hit with the swarms of drones and missiles they've become used to, but it didn't last long. Monday night, the strikes resumed. I was here in bed when they started after midnight, and you could hear loud cracking and booming in the sky as they were met with air defenses and a sort of whooshing noise from the ground. You know, President Zelensky said Russia is, quote, more interested in taking advantage of the coldest days of winter to terrorize people than diplomacy. And here's Zelensky speaking in his daily address to the people last night.

5:32He says we see how Russia responds to a personal request from the president of the United States with ballistic missiles. Not even four full days have passed. Then why is President Trump hailing progress? Well, it seems there has been great progress on security guarantees, which are crucial for Ukraine to make sure Russia does not use its gains as a launch pad to reinvade in the future. And Secretary General of NATO Mark Rutte was in Kiev yesterday. He spoke to the Ukrainian parliament. But before that, he visited a thermal power plant that was hit that night, cutting power and heat to more than 1 ,000 apartment buildings in Kiev, according to the mayor.

6:08As overnight temperatures in the shell hit minus 10 degrees Fahrenheit, here's Ruta standing in the midst of the mangled steaming wreckage of the plant. This plant was hit last night by five Russian missiles without any use in terms of military hates. It's only to create chaos and fear in ordinary citizens living in Ukraine. You know, Ruta said this shows that Russia is not serious about peace. However, Ruta is trusted by President Trump and the Ukrainians, and he painted an optimistic picture in the Ukrainian parliament. He said Europeans are ready to put peacekeeping troops on the ground, air and sea once the fighting stops.

6:45And he said the U.S., President Trump personally, has agreed to be the backstop, meaning any peace would be guaranteed not by signed papers, but by, quote, hard force. OK, well, that does sound like progress. So what are the sticking points then? Well, there could be many. First of all, the Kremlin welcomes diplomacy, but says it's not aware of these security guarantees. And Russia has always said if there are European troops in Ukraine, that'd be a legitimate target. And Russia has not backed down from its demands that Ukraine hand over the 22 percent of the eastern Donetsk region that its troops have been unable to take in four years of fighting.

7:15and that includes a heavily fortified belt of land with some battered cities that blocks Russian forces from progressing further west towards Kiev. And how do Ukrainians feel about that? Well, they're against giving that land up, Michelle. And you know, even in this frigid winter without heat and power, Ukrainians refuse to give in. Yesterday, I was out walking on the Dnipro River that cuts through the heart of Kiev. It's now frozen. And I talked to ice fishermen, who told me, laughing, that it was warmer out there in the bright sun than in their homes with no power. And here is 65-year-old Volodymyr Karabinko, who spoke to us through NPR's producer Polina Litvinova.

7:54We won't surrender, we won't give up, at least without a fight. And that's what you hear out on the streets and the river, and that's what Poles say. Neither the bombing nor the cold is breaking Ukrainians. That is. And Paris, Eleanor Beardsley in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine. Eleanor, thanks. You're welcome, Michelle.

8:25President Trump said this week that Republicans should take over voting in a number of places and nationalize elections. On the podcast of his former FBI deputy director, Dan Bongino, Trump made a number of false claims about non-citizens voting before pushing for more federal control of elections. We should take over the voting in at least many, 15 places. The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting. Just to be clear, that would be super illegal without some change in the law. On Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt claimed the president was referring to a bill that he wants Republicans to pass in Congress.

9:03And the president repeated his desire while appearing with Republican lawmakers. If a state can't run an election, I think the people behind me should do something about it. Because, you know, if you think about it, a state is an agent for the federal government in elections. I don't know why the federal government doesn't do them anyway. Miles Parks covers this issue for NPR. So we're going to ask him to fact check all this. Miles Parks, good morning. Thanks for joining us. So let us start with what President Trump said. What do you make of it? I mean, it feels like another one of those moments where Trump says the quiet part out loud, right?

9:34I mean, for much of his second term, we've reported on this idea that his administration has been encroaching on state responsibilities when it comes to elections. But this is the clearest we've heard the president just come out and say he wants to take over in some places. In terms of where exactly he's talking about these 15 places, that's still a little bit unclear, though he did mention Atlanta, Detroit, and Philadelphia, all places controlled by Democrats, all places with high minority populations, and all places that election conspiracy theories have really focused since 2020. I want to ask you about some of the other ways that the president has sought to influence elections.

10:08But first, can you just give us a little background, a little history here? What does the Constitution say about a president's role in elections? He has basically no rule. Article 1, Section 4 of the Constitution, known as the Elections Clause, says that states run elections, though Congress can pass laws to make national rules. So how has President Trump been pushing that boundary? A few different ways. I mean, shortly after he took office, he signed an executive order that's been blocked by the courts for trying to overstep his presidential authority in elections. The Department of Justice is asking every state for unredacted versions of their voter lists, seemingly to try to police how they're maintaining those lists.

10:46The majority of states haven't complied. And then most recently, we saw this raid in Fulton County last week, Fulton County, Georgia, where federal agents seized election equipment and ballots related to Trump's loss there in 2020. And local officials I talked to see a trend here. Here's how Maine Secretary of State Shanna Bellows, she's a Democrat, put at an event on Friday. We know the 2020 election was safe and secure, as was the 2024 election. And so will be the 2026, as long as the federal government stops its unconstitutional and unlawful interference. The states are sovereign, she said, and Trump needs to, quote, back off.

11:22So Secretary Billis is a Democrat. Are only Democrats concerned about this? Democrats have definitely been more vocal on this issue. But I've heard from Republican election officials as well this year who say that they are actively preparing for the idea of federal interference in this year's midterms. It's also worth remembering that in 2020, there were many, many Republican election officials that stood up to Trump's pressure campaign. So over the next nine months, this is definitely going to be something I'm watching, how Republican election officials engage with some of this rhetoric, especially since states' rights, the idea of states' rights in elections, has been a big conservative value over the years.

11:56That is NPR voting correspondent Miles Parks. Miles, thank you. Thanks, Michelle.

12:04And that's Up First for Wednesday, February 4th. I'm Michelle Martin. And I'm Steve Inskeep. Today's Up First was edited by Anna Yukonanoff, Miguel Macias, Ben Swayze, Mohamed El-Bardisi, and Alice Wolflegs. Produced by Ziad Butch, Nia Dumas, and Christopher Thomas, our director. I talk when he points. We get engineering support from Nisha Hines, and our technical director is Carly Strange. I also talk when she opens the microphone. Thank you. Our supervising producer is Michael Lipkin, who merely critiques what I say, and Michelle is here as always. Join us tomorrow.

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