Democrats lay out demands for DHS funding
A new deadline is looming to avoid another partial government shutdown. Congress has until Feb. 13 to agree on a funding bill or shutter the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) until they can.
Right now, Democrats and Republicans are locked in a standoff over immigration enforcement.
Democratic leaders Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries say they won’t support a full-year DHS funding bill unless it includes new guardrails on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP). On Wednesday, they laid out the demands they expect to be met before they pass any legislation.
What Democrats want
The Democrats’ list includes ten demands, covering everything from mandatory body cameras and limits on agents wearing face masks to roaming patrols and limitations on warrantless actions.
The push for reforms intensified after two deadly shootings involving federal officers in Minneapolis in January.
“Taxpayer dollars should be used to make life more affordable for everyday Americans, not to brutalize or kill them,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said on Wednesday. “ICE is completely and totally out of control. Immigration enforcement should be just, it should be fair, and it should be humane. That is not what is taking place right now.”
Jeffries argues DHS enforcement needs “dramatic changes,” so ICE and other agencies operate like other law enforcement.
Key sticking points
Republicans say some reforms could be on the table — like training and body cameras — but they’re drawing hard lines on two key democratic demands: requiring judicial warrants and banning agents from wearing masks.
“No secret police,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said. “I find it amazing that the Speaker of the House which are saying there shouldn’t be — they should be allowed to have masks. This group which needs to be identified more than any other group should have a standard much more lenient and hidden than other police forces?”
He added, “They need identification and no masks except in extraordinary and unusual circumstances.”
Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala. is already pushing back against Democrats’ demands, calling them “a ridiculous Christmas list of demands for the press.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson has already said he will not back a plan that includes mandatory body cameras or restrictions on warrant-less actions.
Congress cannot pass a funding bill without Democrats. Sixty votes are needed for the Senate to pass any spending bill. There are currently 53 Republican and 45 Democratic senators, plus two Independents.
Icing out other agencies
A DHS funding lapse wouldn’t only impact immigration agencies. It will ripple across the Transportation Security Administration, Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Secret Service and the Coast Guard.
ICE, however, may feel less of an immediate impact. ABC News reports the agency has access to some fiscal year funds, plus a ten-year, $75 billion infusion from the already-passed “Big Beautiful Bill,” meaning ICE operations would continue even if the rest of DHS goes dark.
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Ella Rae Greene, Editor In Chief
