Democrats to demand ICE reforms from White House in DHS funding counter

WASHINGTON (CN) — Senate Democrats will send the White House a counteroffer demanding a list of reforms to immigration enforcement, even as Republicans float a compromise aimed at funding the Department of Homeland Security, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Tuesday.

Lawmakers appeared to be on the path toward a potential breakthrough this week on a funding deadlock that has largely shuttered DHS for more than a month. Senate Republicans on Tuesday afternoon sent a proposal to Democrats that would see Congress fund the entire agency save for some of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

But the compromise would not include many of the reforms Democrats have demanded for the immigration enforcement agency amid the Trump administration’s nationwide deportation crackdown in which federal agents have so far shot and killed at least two American citizens.

Speaking to reporters during a news conference, Washington Senator Patty Murray — the Senate’s top Democratic appropriator — said she and her colleagues would continue to push for “modest” reforms to ICE and Border Patrol and that Democrats had for weeks made it clear they would not support any funding for immigration enforcement without “key steps” to rein them in.

“The current Republican offer in front of us does not do that,” said Murray. But she acknowledged lawmakers had made “progress” with the White House.

Schumer concurred negotiations are “ongoing,” adding Democrats would soon make their own counteroffer to the Trump administration.

“They’ve sent us an offer, and we’re sending them an offer back,” he said. “I can assure you it will contain significant reform in it.”

The top Senate Democrat said that his party’s counteroffer would include a demand that DHS “uphold” the use of judicial warrants in immigration enforcement activities. The agency last year issued guidance permitting federal agents to forcibly enter homes with a so-called “administrative” warrant — a search authorization document that is signed by an ICE official rather than a judge. The directive marked a significant departure from longstanding DHS policy and from the advice of immigration advocates, who have long said people should not open their door for federal agents who cannot present a signed judicial warrant.

DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin, sworn into office Tuesday, signaled to lawmakers last week that he supported returning ICE to pre-2025 guidance for search warrants.

In addition to reforming warrant requirements, Democrats have also demanded that DHS instruct agents to no longer wear masks while conducting immigration operations and to force them to wear clearly marked uniforms. They’ve also said federal officers should not conduct enforcement activities near “sensitive” locations such as schools and hospitals.

It’s unclear whether President Donald Trump or Republicans would acquiesce to any of those requests — they’ve been resistant to Democratic demands so far. Trump also has not committed to supporting the proposed Republican compromise, telling reporters in the Oval Office that the would take a “good hard look” at it.

In the five weeks or so DHS has been shut down, Democrats have repeatedly asked for legislation peeling ICE funding off from the agency’s larger budget. Republicans have on several occasions torpedoed efforts to pass such a bill on the Senate floor, but they appear to have come around to the plan.

In exchange for stripping most ICE funding from the homeland security funding bill, Senate Republicans have suggested the immigration enforcement budget may be tacked onto a forthcoming budget reconciliation package, alongside some provisions from the SAVE America Act, a voter ID bill championed by Trump.

But to force SAVE Act language into any reconciliation bill, Republicans would need to navigate around the Byrd Rule — a Senate guardrail that blocks any “extraneous matter” from such legislation. It’s possible that voter ID restrictions won’t make that cut, at least according to the Senate parliamentarian.

Asked whether Republicans would consider overruling the parliamentarian if SAVE Act language is struck down, Senate Majority Leader John Thune said the upper chamber’s procedure czar “has a role to play” in the budget reconciliation process and that he has “respected” their input.

“I would expect that it’s an iterative process and a back-and-forth, sometimes trading back different ideas to see what works,” he told reporters.

As lawmakers continue to hash out a path forward to fund DHS, the protracted agency shutdown has begun affecting the lives of everyday Americans — particularly in the realm of air travel, where staffing shortages among Transportation Security Administration officers have caused major delays at airports nationwide.

Trump announced this week that he’d instructed ICE agents to deploy at certain airport terminals to support TSA staff.

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